Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson on the State of the Economy and His New Book “On the Brink”
EmailThis morning I sat down with former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson whose new book “On the Brink” details his turmoil filled tenure as the nation’s chief financial officer. So just how successful does he think his tough decisions regarding the economy really were? “The financial system is stable,” he said “and the economy is recovering right now. It’s got a good ways to go. And in terms of the actions that we took, I have no doubt that they helped us avoid disaster.”
But even Paulson acknowledged that not enough was done and that the country is not out of the woods just yet. “We have not fixed problems we need to fix. And we won’t have fixed it until we put in place resolution authority so that no financial institution is too big to fail.”
One such institution is Paulson’s former employer, Goldman Sachs. Both Paulson and his former company have come under fire throughout the crisis. The financial firm was made whole with taxpayer dollars when insurance giant AIG did not repay their debt. Some, including those on Capitol Hill say Paulson was playing favorites.
Paulson refused to address the payouts to any specific firms and did not directly address claims surrounding Goldman Sachs and AIG but he did say, “When I left Goldman Sachs, I severed my relationship in the firm, sold all my stock in the firm. My responsibility was to the American people and with every situation, and particularly, with regard to AIG, I cared about one thing and one thing only…if AIG had gone down, it would have been catastrophic for the American economy. It would have taken down the whole financial system…It would have been a disaster.”
Watch the entire interview here:
Obama: 'Now Is the Time For Common Sense Action' 
Romney Takes Aim at Conservatives
No one should buy this book. These Wall Street cronies have already made enough in their looting of the American taxpayers.
Posted by: Huh | February 1, 2010, 12:13 pm 12:13 pm
Geo,
We need you back on This Week! The show on Sunday had great potential but fizzled.
Posted by: Albert | February 1, 2010, 1:18 pm 1:18 pm
could the “Son of Sam” law apply to Paulson in this case? Just wondering….
Posted by: Ed | February 1, 2010, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
The economy is far from fixed. Mark my words.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | February 1, 2010, 1:48 pm 1:48 pm
To me–wealthy people don’t write books unless they’re guilty of something. In Paulson’s case, he’s guilty of saving his friends at the expense of the American people. Everyone seems to ignore the larger point about the financial system in an allegedly free-market economy. If the system was going to fail, there was probably a reason that it SHOULD fail and not be rescued. It doesn’t mean that the US was solely responsible for the problem–it just means that the system was inadequate to task as it was designed. Rather than allowing a Phoenix to rise from the ashes–Paulson rescued and rewarded a continually failing financial system. Rather than trusting in the free-market, he acquiesced to sub-mediocrity in the performance of his sworn duty. I’m past it–I won’t line his pockets by buying ‘trash and lies in print-’ just because he wrote it.
Posted by: Dennis in AZ | February 1, 2010, 8:54 pm 8:54 pm
What free market?
Posted by: Will H. | February 1, 2010, 10:06 pm 10:06 pm
Banking-bankers is part of the system; thus, is also at least pârtly self-regulating.
Thus what banks have done was legal. So, if US is nation of laws, which supposedly regulate or don`t regulate banking practices, everything is going as planned by congress-WH-laws.
So, why does BHO complain?
Ah, it must be politicly correct to complain while leaving the laws alone. tnx
Posted by: bozhidar balkas vancouver | February 1, 2010, 11:27 pm 11:27 pm
Why purchase Paulson’s book when we experienced the greatest financial rip off in America’s history? The nerve of him to try to make a profit off of the demise of our economy which he was in charge of protecting.
Posted by: clarity | February 4, 2010, 9:28 pm 9:28 pm
The past administration did nothing to help the average citizens in America. That administration did what George W, Bush wanted in his uncontrolled spending and catering to big business agendas. The whole lot of them should be ashamed of how they ignored America’s interest vs the financial increases to their own portfolios. Giving money away without documentation. Allowing jobs to leave America for the profit of business financial profits. And the most egregious not giving American troops support morally or economically.
Posted by: Michele | February 8, 2010, 9:52 am 9:52 am
Really it’s called SEO that when i search for this article I found this website at the top of all websites in search engine.
Posted by: Jermaine Bisagna | November 23, 2011, 11:36 am 11:36 am