Financial History Issue 124 (Winter 2018) | Page 10

THE TICKER  MUSEUM NEWS however, waited a bit and then said the Japanese markets are going to open in a few minutes, you have to decide now, and we should do this. I resisted, he insisted. I relented, we went ahead. It worked, and of course I took the credit, which was as it should have been. When in time that young career civil servant became president of the New York Fed and then Secretary of the Treasury himself, Tim set an example for public service — of seriousness of purpose — in the face of tremendous crisis and tre- mendous media and political pressure. The banks and the investment banks, as all of you well remember, were dealing with potentially dire circumstances. And Tim devised and then implemented his approach of stress tests and recapitaliza- tion. The right was furious. They wanted laisse-faire and they wanted the banks to sink or swim on their own. The left was furious. They wanted to fire all the CEOs. Tim, with tremendous fortitude, stuck with his strategy in the face of withering fire, and in my view — and the view of many, many others — saved our country, or at least was indispensable in saving our country from going over the abyss. Tim’s ability to focus on the issues in front of him with rigor and a strong intellect, and to care only about reaching optimal outcomes without being phased by media or political pressure, combined with great and balanced judgment, zero of counterproductive ego, and a strong sense of irony and almost philosophical amusement at the absurdities of life are what made Tim effective in public service. However, no one is perfect. And this is where I get even for Tim’s comment when he introduced me [at the 2016 Museum of American Finance Gala]. Tim sent me an email directing that my introduction should say — and this is, roughly speaking, a quote — “that while growth, job creation and stock market increases, on their face, looked better dur- ing my time when I was at Treasury, that this was totally misleading, and that his record was better than mine when the conditions were adjusted to reflect the degree of difficulty and the political circumstances.” That is, of course, an absolutely outra- geous view, on the one hand. On the o