American Morning
Hank Paulson doesn't do "second-guessing"
Washington, DC - For a man who long championed free markets, the irony of being known as the architect of the greatest government intervention into markets in history sits just fine with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Paulson says he'd rather be the architect of the bailouts than the Treasury Secretary who presided over the second Great Depression.
"The president in his state of the union address captured the mood of the country when he said Republicans hate these, Democrats hate these, I hate them, and just let me tell you I hated them," Paulson says. "But they were much better than the alternative and you know what they worked. Because we needed working with imperfect tools and authorities…we were able to cobble together enough to prevent the system from collapsing and avoid disaster."
Round II of storm blast sparks resolve
(CNN) - East Coasters are greeting the latest winter storm to roar from the nation's midsection Wednesday with dismay and delight. Following a record-setting weekend blizzard in Washington, the storm is expected to dump more snow - and, for the likes of Richard Bahar, more misery. Bahar's tutoring business had to cancel classes for the week, which has meant refunds and rescheduling. "It's a total mess," Bahar said Wednesday morning. "Most of my business colleagues are sitting at home all week."
But for many students such as Hadass Kogan, the snow days are a welcome respite from the rigors of graduate school. "It's been really refreshing to get time off," said Kogan, a second-year student at George Washington University Law School. "I still have plenty of schoolwork to catch up on."
The winter storm barreled in from the Midwest, where it kept cars off streets and planes off runways in cities such as Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. It moved into Washington on Tuesday night and swooped toward New York. The storm is expected to dump up to 10 inches of snow in Washington, up to 20 inches in New York and up to 22 inches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Washington, D.C. has spent the past few days digging itself out from a record snowfall over the weekend. By Tuesday night, some city streets were again impassable. "The Potomac River is frozen, the George Washington Parkway a sheet of snowy ice," Bahar said. "It looks more like St. Petersburg, Russia."
Read the full story here.
'On the Brink' by Henry Paulson
By Henry M. Paulson, Jr.
From 'On the Brink'
Chapter 1
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Do they know it’s coming, Hank?” President Bush asked me.
“Mr. President,” I said, “we’re going to move quickly and take them by surprise. The first sound they’ll hear is their heads hitting the floor.”
It was Thursday morning, September 4, 2008, and we were in the Oval Offi ce of the White House discussing the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the troubled housing finance giants. For the good of the country, I had proposed that we seize control of the companies, fire their bosses, and prepare to provide up to $100 billion of capital support for each. If we did not act immediately, Fannie and Freddie would, I feared, take down the financial system, and the global economy, with them.
I’m a straightforward person. I like to be direct with people. But I knew that we had to ambush Fannie and Freddie. We could give them no room to maneuver. We couldn’t very well go to Daniel Mudd at Fannie Mae or Richard Syron at Freddie Mac and say: “Here’s our idea for how to save you. Why don’t we just take you over and throw you out of your jobs, and do it in a way that protects the taxpayer to the disadvantage of your shareholders?” The news would leak, and they’d fight. They’d go to their many powerful friends on Capitol Hill or to the courts, and the resulting delays would cause panic in the markets. We’d trigger the very disaster we were trying to avoid.
Victory for New Orleans
Mardi Gras celebrations are already breaking out this year in New Orleans. Today, schools are closing early so everyone can get to the Louisiana Superdome in time for tonight's Super Bowl parade.
And still celebrating the Saints' championship is a pair of CNN political contributors who happen to be husband and wife and members of the "Who dat" nation – James Carville and Mary Matalin. They joined us on Tuesday's American Morning.
Judge to Jackson's doctor: 'I don't want you sedating people'
Michael Jackson's doctor is free on bail today. According to his lawyer, Conrad Murray is ready to resume practicing medicine.
Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with Jackson's death. Yesterday, he pleaded not guilty as Jackson's family looked on. Our Ted Rowlands was there and has this report.
Related: Joe Jackson: Dr. Murray 'a fall guy'
Dr. Gupta: 'My mind never left Haiti'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/09/guptahaitihospital.jpg caption="Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Port-au-Prince hospital."]
By Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN Medical Chief Correspondent
When I told my wife I wanted to go back to Haiti, she had the reaction I expected. “The girls really missed you when you were gone last time,” she said. “I am worried that you lost too much weight down there,” she added. And, “what about your safety, physical and mental well being?” she concluded. They were all the reactions I expected.
The car was then silent as we were driving through our neighborhood on a rainy Saturday morning. In that quiet, we both realized something essential. I knew she was right, on all counts. And, still, she knew it was the right thing to do. She was the first to speak and break the silence. “Truth is, I would go with you,” she whispered. “I would like to help as well.”
I thought about that conversation a lot on the middle-of-the-night flight to Florida, a connection to Santa Domingo at 3 a.m. and then finally the early morning arrival in Port-au-Prince. She has seen the images on television of the unfathomable suffering over the last month, and she was affected by it in more ways that I realized.
Over the few days I was home, we hardly talked about what I had seen in Haiti. I felt the need to protect her from those stories, some of which I may never share with anyone – and she was cognizant of the desire to not re open the emotional images. She also knew that while I was physically home, my mind never left Haiti.
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