Summers’ vacation at the White House is over

Lawrence Summers, US president Barack Obama's top economic advisor and also director of the National Economic Council, will step down from his post after November's mid-term elections, the White House announced Tuesday.

His departure will see three out of four key economic advisors leaving the embattled Obama administration this year. Earlier departures were Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Christina Romer, the president's chair of Council of Economic Advisers. The lone survivor of this four-headed economic executive and advisory team, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, remains in place.

Administration officials let it be known through unofficial channels that the departure was not unexpected as the president had asked Summers to stay through 2010 in order to see through the passage of financial reform and the continued implementation of the economic recovery program. They stressed that his departure was part of a long-standing plan to return to Harvard.

Sources close to Summers confirmed that his two-year leave from Harvard University was up.

His departure coincides with mass dissatisfaction with the progress of the national economy, which is expected to be reflected in a massive anti-incumbent vote in the forthcoming November elections. It is widely expected that the Democrats may lose control over one of the two houses of the Congress, very likely the House of Representatives.

Summers led the president's daily economic briefing.