Paulson's Apologia pro sua vita

The 18 November 2008 online edition of 'The New York Times' carried an op ed piece of US secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. It is called 'Fighting the Financial Crisis, One Challenge at a Time'. As such, it sums up quite neatly Paulson's guiding star in handling the worst financial crisis in almost a century, and thereby hangs a tale of his inability to deal effectively with the toxic subprime mortgage bonds which have infected the world financial markets. In effect, Paulson has mistaken the tree for the economic forest. As such, by treating each forest fire individually, he has allowed other low grade fires to thrive until each and everyone flares up into a major crisis. In brief, his narrow approach has made a bad market worse, and one example is worth mentioning, his deliberate, not fully thought out decision to let Lehman fail. Lehman's bankruptcy percipitated the krash which have threatened world economic growth and good health for years to come. Paulson's apologia pro sua vita is his way of a cover up. 'Le Monde' reports that constrained by Senator Obama's election, Paulson has put a break on his plan to disburse us$700bn to his friends in the banking industry. Moreover, his decision to let the American automotive industry to fail, is proof again of his myopia and misunderstanding of the markets. His insouciance of letting the pillars of US capitalism crumble, boggles the mind.