Henry M. Paulson Jr.

"It has been a difficult, and humbling, two years for our nation. But every other major country has more significant economic problems than we do and, with the resilience of our economy and the ingenuity of our people, we can meet our challenges. Nonetheless, we must not lose our sense of urgency, or the political courage to make the necessary reforms to ensure our long-term prosperity."

From the NYT.

I am not paid by Wall Street, but if this man is one of their best defenders, I am worried about the future of this country.

Where in there does it say that the US has to be putting money into factories and infrastructure, instead of financial institutions? Maybe you can read between the lines, or have read the whole piece. I did not see a rational approach to the economic problems that he mentions. As far as I can see Mr. Paulson talks about avoiding harsh measures against Wall Street. The reforms he advocates to ensure our long-term prosperity, sound hollow to me.

I was making the following mental picture while reading his proposal. A big world wide committee of rich countries, making sure that the rest of us get what we deserve for our work. Who will be in that committee? Mr. Paulson, Mr. Summers,or Mr. Geithner? Maybe if Mr. Krugman is interested, I'll give it a second thought.

Of course I think like this because I have been reading Bob Herbert:

"The great danger right now is that we will do exactly the wrong thing, that we’ll turn away from our screaming infrastructure needs and let the deterioration continue. With infrastructure costs so high (the needs are enormous and enormously expensive) and with the eyes in Washington increasingly focused on deficit reduction, the absolutely essential modernizing of the American infrastructure may not take place. That would be worse than foolish. It would be tragic."