Hank Henry Paulson at his best

Hank Paulson’s vacillating statements ever since the financial crisis broke out

Treasury secretary Paulson has significantly altered the way he talks about the financial crisis as the year has progressed. These vacillating statements have cost him a lot of credibility amongst lawmakers in the US who are now refusing to approve the bail out package of $700 billion, what has now come to be termed as the “Paulson Plan”

Lets have a look at some of the statements made by the treasury secretary in the last one year:

Dec 2007: The Magic here is that investors and servicers are coming together to ensure that we don’t have a market failure

Feb 27,2008: I don’t think the American taxpayer needs to step in with more taxpayer dollars. We are so far away from a situation that calls for a bailout

May 6,2008: There is no doubt things feel better today than they were in March (post Bear sterns bailout), the worst is likely to be behind us.

July 2, 2008: To address the perception that some institutions are too big to fail, we must improve tools at our disposal for facilitating the orderly failure of a complex financial institution.

July 20, 2008: America’s banking systems are safe. We are a strong and sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation.

Sept 18, 2008: If we don’t pass this $700 billion bailout package, then heaven help us all (his statement at the congress)