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