"The alternative we were looking at was a cascade of failing institutions," Paulson said. To arrive at the first conclusion, you have to believe that we were on the brink of disaster in late September and early October. Is that true? As Paulson said in another context, "I think five years from now it will be a lot easier to put all of this in perspective." Today the facts point toward two conclusions:ġ) Given the political and economic realities he faced, there is no obviously better path Paulson could have followed.Ģ) Paulson is really bad at explaining why he made the choices he did. "I don't think we've made mistakes on the major decisions," he argued.
What does Paulson think about this change in his fortunes? "I just haven't had time to focus on it," he said near the beginning of a long conversation, during which he made clear that he had focused on the criticism and saw most of it as unfair. If there is a face to this financial debacle, it is now his exuding an air of perpetual embattlement. Paulson has become an unpopular, controversial figure, the target of harsh criticism on Capitol Hill and in the media. You don't hear that kind of talk anymore. If anybody could lead us through the crisis, it would be the hard-charging former Dartmouth College football star known as the Hammer. Congressional leaders of both parties (but especially the Democrats) sang his praises. He was hailed on magazine covers as KING HENRY and PAULSON TO THE RESCUE. Along with his partners in panic, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Federal Reserve Bank of New York president Tim Geithner who will take over at Treasury in January Paulson has led a government economic intervention on a scale never before seen in the U.S., except perhaps during World War II.įor a brief period in late summer, before the collapse of Lehman Brothers brought the crisis into a new and much more dire phase, Paulson's new clout was greeted by widespread acclaim. Congress has given him close to $1 trillion to repair the financial system. A lame-duck President has given him nearly complete control over the country's economic policy in the midst of an epic financial collapse. Paulson, 62, has come to play a historic role at a historic time. "But, boy, I do not want to be this relevant." frame folded into a big chair in the corner of the office where such legends as Andrew Mellon and Henry Morgenthau once worked and where he has presided over some of the most momentous Treasury meetings ever.
"I've always said I don't want to be irrelevant," Paulson said during an interview in mid-December, his 6-ft. If he was giving up the top job at Goldman Sachs, he wasn't doing it for a sinecure. (Hank) Paulson Jr.'s top priority was to make certain that his department would have independence and clout. When he arrived in Washington as Secretary of the Treasury in the summer of 2006, Henry M.
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