- Joint Effort Needed to Unwind Stimulus: APEC Leaders
- Obama to Outline Strategy to Boost US Exports to Asia
- Friday May See 'Risk Trade' Stalling; Dollar in Focus
- Job Market Politics to Keep Interest Rates Low
- AIG, Symbol of Crisis, Watches Its Stock Zoom Back
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Disney Profit, Sales Top Street Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Bill Gates Praises Apple's Jobs for 'Saving the Company'
- Is Euphoric Market Ignoring Warning Signs?
- EXCERPTS and IMAGES: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Gold Is a Bad Inflation Hedge—Like Oil: Stock Picker
- Intel's Andy Bryant Offers An Explanation
- US 'Actively Working' on Weaker Dollar: Fund Manager
- Options Boil on Biotech Buyout Rumors
- Warren Buffett's $100,000 Offer and $500,000 Advice for Columbia Business School Students
- Activision Blizzard's "Modern Warfare 2" Sales Break Records
- 5-Star Manager's 5 Stocks for Changing Markets
MOST SHARED
- CNBC TRANSCRIPT: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
- Pharma & Social Media
- Is Euphoric Market Ignoring Warning Signs?
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Share Their 'Optimism' With Eager Columbia Business Students
- Disney Profit, Sales Top Street Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Obama to Outline Strategy to Boost US Exports to Asia
- China Fourth Quarter Growth Could Hit 10%: Official
- Alleged Florida Ponzi Scheme Could Top $1 Billion
- Video Game Sales Plunge, but Have They Hit Bottom?
Text Size 
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said U.S. financial markets are emerging from the credit crunch that many economists believe has pushed the country to the brink of recession, according to The Wall Street Journal.
 |
AP |
"I do believe that the worst is likely to be behind us," Paulson told the newspaper in an interview.
The Journal said Paulson's comments appear to be the Bush administration's most optimistic assessment yet about the financial turmoil that began last year with defaults on subprime home loans and spread through financial institutions that owned tens of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities.
In the interview, however, the Treasury Secretary predicted there would be further "bumps along the road," and that it would take "some months longer" for the market distress to fully dissipate. Some financial markets, he said, still aren't fully functioning.
The Journal said Paulson pointed to the Federal Reserve's decision to help prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns and to provide liquidity to other investment banks as "an inflection point" in the crisis.
The newspaper said Paulson also believes Congress will soon pass two measures he considers critical: one to improve the regulation of Fannie Mae [FNM Loading... ()] and Freddie Mac [FRE Loading... ()], the government-chartered mortgage companies, and another to overhaul the Federal Housing Administration.
Print
Email
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- They may have wrecked their companies or saved our economy. Tell us what you think.
- Big pharma embraces social media, but how much should a tightly regulated sector say on Facebook or Twitter?
- A European dating site finds lovelorn singles from one country to be consistently uglier. Which is it?
- Contributor David Pogue looks at two of the latest efforts to perfect the digital pocket camera.
- PepsiCo is ramping up its onsite health facilities for workers.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes