"The British screwed us," I blurted out, more in frustration than anger. I'm sure the FSA had very good reasons for their stance, and it would have been more proper and responsible for me to have said we had been surprised and disappointed to learn of the UK regulator's decision, but I was caught up in the emotion of the moment.
Back in my temporary office on the 13th floor, a jolt of fear suddenly overcame me as I thought of what lay ahead of us. Lehman was as good as dead, and AIG's problems were spiraling out of control. With the U.S. sinking deeper into recession, the failure of a large financial institution would reverberate throughout the country—and far beyond our shores. It would take years for us to dig ourselves out from under such a disaster.
Hank, the hand-wringing does NOT inspire confidence. By your own words, you were emotionally overwrought. Should you have been handling this crisis at all? And then there's this snippet:
All weekend I'd been wearing my crisis armor, but now I felt my guard slipping. I knew I had to call my wife, but I didn't want to do it from the landline in my office because other people were there. So I walked around the corner to a spot near some windows. Wendy had just returned from church. I told her about Lehman's unavoidable bankruptcy and the looming problems with AIG.
"What if the system collapses?" I asked her. "Everybody is looking to me, and I don't have the answer. I am really scared."
I asked her to pray for me, and for the country, and to help me cope with this sudden onslaught of fear. She immediately quoted from the Second Book of Timothy, verse 1:7—"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
I'm all for powerful leaders quietly praying for strength and guidance as they execute their responsibilities, but this outright panic is distressing. Is his book pandering to the people who were hurt the most by his decisions, trying to save what's left of his reputation? Could he be that cold and calculating? Or is he a weak-minded bureaucrat hiding behind God's skirts?
Question of the day: Is this book worth the paper it's printed on?
Not a fan of Paulson.
ReplyDeleteBUT - as for "behind the scenes" books I can totally recommend: Game Change. I started it Saturday night and kept reading non-stop (except for sleep) until I finished it on Sunday. It was awesome.
I came out feeling some surprising sympathy for a person I normally detest, was more than a little put off by the behavior of someone I normally really like, and saw that the arrogance of someone I thought was completely over the top is actually worse than I thought.
EXCELLENT book.
Good recommendation, afw, I'll add it to my list. I hear it's hard to come by so I'll be waiting a couple years to get it from my library.
ReplyDeleteSo many books, so little time :-)
As to Paulson, just from reading the excerpts my first impression is of a weak person making rationalizations. Doesn't inspire confidence.