Geithner Sees 'Dramatically Different' Capitalism

Tim Geithner defended his performance at the New York Fed and the Treasury in a long interview with Charlie Rose last night, but conceded that "expectations got ahead of the policy." Geithner rejected suggestions that the lack of a policy detail was muddling the Obama administration's message and impeding economic recovery: "We always were going to start with a broad strategy and follow it up with detailed, concrete announcements."

The secretary railed against the financial community for making "exceptionally bad judgments" made "dramatically worse by continuing to pay out really unjustifiable bonuses." Geithner also suggested that, after Lehman, another big bank could not be allowed to go bust, promising "temporary assistance...with appropriately tough conditions." Asked whether capitalism will be different post-crisis, he responded: "It's already dramatically different."
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