Crooks and Liars:
Definitely caught off guard, Paulson stammered through his insistence that the White House is on top of things:
WALLACE: You have been criticized and the President has been criticized for striking such positive notes. When you were last here on this program, seven weeks ago, you said, quote ‘the economy is going to continue to grow’ but by every measure, things have gotten worse since then, and I’d like you to…if I may, just take a look. The dollar closed at a record low this week against the Euro. Oil is at a record high. We’ve lost 85,000 jobs in the last two months and retail sales continue to drop. Mr. Secretary, don’t all signs point to the economy continuing to decline for months to come?
PAULSON: Uh, Chris, what I said is I believe that the economy is going to continue to grow but the risks are to the down side. The risks are housing, capital markets turmoil, the price of oil. We’re focused on it, we’re all over it. I think it’s much less important what you call this—economists will be debating that for months and months and months. It’s much less important what you call it than what you’re doing about it. And we’re working very hard. Working to prevent those foreclosures that are preventable, avoidable. Working to minimize the spillover from the capital markets turmoil on the real economy and I think the stimulus package is going to make a difference.
PAULSON: Uh, Chris, what I said is I believe that the economy is going to continue to grow but the risks are to the down side. The risks are housing, capital markets turmoil, the price of oil. We’re focused on it, we’re all over it. I think it’s much less important what you call this—economists will be debating that for months and months and months. It’s much less important what you call it than what you’re doing about it. And we’re working very hard. Working to prevent those foreclosures that are preventable, avoidable. Working to minimize the spillover from the capital markets turmoil on the real economy and I think the stimulus package is going to make a difference.
WALLACE: But but, let me ask about that. I think that the concern, whether it’s called a recession or not, we should point out that the Wall Street Journal had a survey of 51 top economists this week, 70% of them said the economy is already in a recession. But let’s not even play that semantics. I think the growing concern is that you, the President, keep saying ‘We’re all over this’ and then a few months down the road, things are worse and so they wonder are you out ahead of these things or are you always behind the curve?
PAULSON: Well, uh Chris, there’s…there’s a question what…when there are excesses. Excesses we’ve seen in the housing market, a correction there is…inevitable. You’re going to see a correction. I believe can we outlaw the uh forces of gravity? Can we…you know, how much can government do? But this…this administration has been focused on this…I think, very early involved…very early, beginning in August. Working very hard to avoid foreclosures that are preventable, putting in in in place programs that are making a difference, are working. Are they going to to prevent the inevitable correction in housing prices? No, but we’re working hard on that and again, I think we were early with the stimulus package.
1 comment:
Henry Paulson is just in the job for the money he can get for his personal business. This mess was the Mission set out as a plan when Bush took office. The Carlyle Group cleaned out the US Treasury and closed shop while taking their profits back to the Middle East. I must admit the Middle East Leaders knew they had idiots when they team up with the Republican Party. The knew Greed was the way to feed the GOP and while Greed also brought down the United States Economy. You know Dubai did well as their willing to loan Citi Bank money yes the same money Dubai got from the US Treasury. Americans were so busy watching American Idol, scandals, Paris and Britney as the US Treasury was being robbed. Yes the Media did their part by covering up the real story. Now the Law Makers well so were in on the deal for kick backs others just got blocked from doing anything. But no worries Bill Clinton will be blamed for the 7 years of corruption and the fall of the US Economy because Americans will believe what ever the White House and the Media tell them.
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