It is hard to imagine posting on the usual topics when one considers the import of this simple paragraph fragment from the lead article in today’s Washington Post, “In Crucible of Crisis, Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner Forge a Committee of Three“:
“As [Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York] chart a government response to the crisis, the stakes could hardly be higher. If they succeed, they could tame the economic downturn and orchestrate a restructuring of Wall Street with minimal collateral damage. If they fail, the toll could be millions of jobs, trillions of dollars in lost wealth and a crisis of confidence in global capitalism.”
FYI, consider this comment, from the same Post article, on Paulson’s predecessor, and the followup description-analysis of Paulson’s management style:
“[Former Treasury Secretary John Snow] closed the Treasury’s monitoring room, where staff members keep an eye on global stock, bond and currency markets around the clock, to save money.
“Snow’s contact with Bernanke, then in office just six months, was mainly limited to formal weekly breakfasts. There was little communication between Snow and Geithner.
“That changed rapidly with Paulson.
“A creature of the financial markets prone to firing off rapid phone calls to any potential source of information, he took to calling Geithner and Bernanke at all times of day, to bounce ideas off them or discuss the latest trouble spot in the markets.
“‘Overcommunication never hurts,’ Paulson said. ‘If it is something significant, I would just pick up the phone and call Ben. … One of the things I do is I create an atmosphere where I am so direct and so open and collaborative with people I trust that it brings out the same in them.'”