Gov't Will Do 'What It Takes' for Economy: Paulson

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson vowed today to do “what it takes” to uphold a weak economy, the AP reports. “No one is debating the fact that this economy has slowed way down,” he said on the Sunday show circuit. "We feel it, we know it, the American people know it." He also backed the Federal Reserve move to fund Bear Stearns, calling it necessary to keep “disruption from spilling out into the real economy.”

Paulson is “convinced” that banks will “come out of this situation very strong," but officials are still scrambling: President Bush plans to meet financial gurus tomorrow and the Federal Reserve is mulling a new rate cut Tuesday. Some analysts predict a full percentage point reduction. On ABC, Nancy Pelosi blasted Bush for acting “too late," while on Fox Sen. Charles Schumer compared Bush’s "hands-off attitude" to Herbert Hoover’s. (More Henry Paulson stories.)