Date

Quote

July 12th, 2007

"This is far and away the strongest global economy I've seen in my business lifetime."

  CNN

April 20th, 2007

"I don't see (subprime mortgage market troubles) imposing a serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained."

  Reuters

April 20th, 2007

"We've clearly had a big correction in the housing market. Retail housing was growing for some time at a level that was not sustainable," Paulson said in a speech to The Committee of 100, a business group in New York promoting better Chinese relations.

  Reuters

August 1st, 2007

"The market has focused on this. There's a wake-up call, and there's an adjustment to this repricing of risk, but I see the underlying economy as being very healthy," he told reporters before leaving Beijing.

  Reuters

February 28th, 2008

"I'm seeing a series of ideas suggested involving major government intervention in the housing market, and these things are usually presented or sold as a way of helping homeowners stay in their homes.  Then when you look at them more carefully what they really amount to is a bailout for financial institutions or Wall Street."

(Interview with Wall Street Journal)

March 16th, 2008

"We've got strong financial institutions . . . Our markets are the envy of the world. They're resilient, they're...innovative, they're flexible. I think we move very quickly to address situations in this country, and, as I said, our financial institutions are strong."

RealClearPolitics.com

May 7, 2008

'The worst is likely to be behind us,' Paulson told the paper, in one of the most optimistic comments by a top U.S. finance official since sub-prime mortgage losses set a domino effect in motion in mid 2007.

(Forbes.com)

  Forbes.com

May 16th, 2008

"In my judgment, we are closer to the end of the market turmoil than the beginning," he said. "Looking forward, I expect that financial markets will be driven less by the recent turmoil and more by broader economic conditions and, specifically, by the recovery of the housing sector."

USA Today

July 15th, 2008

"If you've got a squirt gun in your pocket, you may have to take it out.- If you've got a bazooka, and people know you've got it...you're not likely to take it out."

(Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee about government support of mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae)

July 20th, 2008

"I think it's going to be months that we're working our way through this period, clearly months. Of course the list [of difficulties] is going to grow longer given the stresses we have in the marketplace, given the housing correction - but again, it's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation."

lCBS

July 21st, 2008

"You know how I feel about a strong dollar, and I believe the most important thing we can do support a strong dollar is to have confidence in our capital markets, confidence in our economy, taking the kinds of actions we're taking."

  Reuters

August 10th, 2008

``We have no plans to insert money into either of those two institutions,'' Paulson said in an interview with NBC's ``Meet the Press'' broadcast today from Beijing. He added that their earnings results were ``not a surprise.''

  Bloomberg

September 7^th, 2008

"Our economy and our markets will not recover until the bulk of this housing correction is behind us," said Paulson.

US Treasury - Press Release

September 7th, 2008

“Nothing about our actions today in any way reflects a changed view of the housing correction or of the strength of other U.S. financial institutions.”  

(Statement by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on Treasury and Federal Housing Finance Agency Action to Protect Financial Markets and Taxpayers)

US Treasury - Press Release

September 8th, 2008

“I don't -- there is no specific analysis. This was not -- we didn't sit there and figure this out with a calculator. This was about our financial markets, it was about confidence in the financial markets, confidence in our economy, and the validity of the mortgage finance.”

(Interview with CNBC’s Steve Liesman)

  CNBC

September 15th, 2008

"Moral hazard is something I don't take lightly," Paulson said Monday. "I never once considered that it was appropriate to put taxpayer money on the line in resolving Lehman Brothers."

Yahoo Business

September 19th, 2008

"We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars - this needs to be big enough to make a real difference and get at the heart of the problem," he said. "This is the way we stabilize the system."

  CNN