ariel1935

Paulson: The Exit Interview

Paulson knew before he took the job that it would come to no good end. There was no up side for him except desperately needed public service to minimize the damage he knew could happen. He didn't count on demagogery by congress, chicken little drumbeating by most of the media, and the renegades in the other branches of government. Not even he could have anticipated the speed with which the collasp happened.

Lehman was a shell of its former self after its previous reorganization and was taken over by pirates. No one could save it and it was not necessarily worth saving. The shame is that it traded on the old brand long after it was a sham.

AIG was doing ok with Greenberg in charge. When Sullivan took over they got much more careless with risk and in a short time were id deep water. How could Paulson have known it went south that soon?

IMO he did better than we could have hoped in a thankless job and we were lucky to have him there. I would take him and Ben over Rubin and Greenspan any time.