Former Treasury's Summers: U.S. already in recession

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is probably already in recession, and things are likely to get worse before they get better, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said on Wednesday.

"It is overwhelmingly likely that we are now in a recession," Summers told a meeting at the Harvard Club of New York. "There is a very large amount of pain left to be felt."

Summers, who was appointed Treasury secretary in 1999 by President Bill Clinton, argued the economy's troubles would hit middle-class and poor Americans the hardest, particularly since their incomes have failed to rise despite the solid growth trend of the past few years.

"The growth in the size of the economy has not been matched by the size of incomes of the average family," said Summers.

(Reporting by Burton Frierson and Pedro da Costa; Editing by Leslie Adler)