Word: paulson
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Ultimately Paulson, Bernanke and Geithner must convince the public that fixing the financial mess requires a dramatic expansion of government power--and in particular, the power of their respective offices. That may be a tough sell, in part because the disaster was as much a failure of the political system as of the financial one. Over the past decade, politicians, scooping up campaign contributions from Wall Street, took down the guardrails that had existed since the Depression. And few were better connected in the corridors of power--or more successful at deflecting proposals for tighter government supervision--than mortgage giants...
Congressional critics of the Paulson-Bernanke bailout have demanded to rewrite the plan before approving it, clamoring for aid to struggling homeowners, limits on executive pay at firms getting federal help, perhaps even requiring Treasury to get an equity stake in a firm in exchange for its subpar assets. In the interview with Time on Sept. 24, Paulson said, "I believe that we're going to get a bill that works and a clean bill. It certainly won't be exactly what we asked for--it never is--but it's got to be sufficient...
...just the beginning. Even if it works, that still leaves the job of making sure it never happens again. Congress needs to remake the 1930s-era patchwork of various federal agencies that oversee banks and financial institutions. "There's so much that needs to be done, so much work," Paulson said. "Some people want to say there's too little regulation. It's not that. It's just outdated, outmoded, ineffective. The architecture was put in place in a different era, and it hasn't kept pace with the evolving financial markets...
...Paulson pondered the work before himself, Bernanke and Geithner, it was hard not to notice that, for the first time, he sounded like a very tired...
...More Paulson Read the full transcript of our interview with Hank Paulson at time.com/paulson