Sur le plan Paulson
I dont think the rescue plan is perfect, but I dont know that I could draw one thats perfect. I would rather be approximately right than precisely wrong. And it would be precisely wrong to turn it down. We have a terrific economy. Its like a great athlete thats had a cardiac arrest. And its flat on the floor, and paramedics have arrived. And they shouldnt argue about whether they put the resuscitation equipment a quarter of an inch this way or a quarter of an inch that way. Or they shouldnt start criticizing the patient because he didnt have blood pressure tests or something like that. They should do whats needed right now. In the end, something this important, theyll do the right thing. This is really an economic Pearl Harbor. That sounds melodramatic, but Ive never used that phrase before, and this really is one. If Pearl Harbor came along, you could have said the planning was wrong by the military ahead of time, or maybe the battleship shouldnt have been in the harbor and all of that kind of thing. It doesnt make any difference. Its Pearl Harbor.</p> <p><strong>Sur l’état de l’économie américaine</strong></p> <p>Weve got people that are more productive than theyve ever been in the history of this country. Weve got a wonderful economic formula in this country. But right now it is being - its been brought to a halt by the de-leveraging thats going on right now that has caused the credit crisis.
Sur les causes de la crise
I would say the biggest single cause was that we had an incredible residential real estate bubble. You can go back to tulip bulbs in Holland 400 years ago, human beings going through combinations of fear and greed and all of that sort of thing, their behavior can lead to bubbles.
And so you get what I call the natural progression, the three Is - the innovators, the imitators and the idiots. Everybody just kind of goes along and you look kind of silly if you disagree. Its a lot like Cinderella at the ball. You know at midnight everythings going to turn to pumpkins and mice. Right ? But as the evening goes along, the guys look better all the time, the music sounds better, its more and more fun. You think why the hell should I leave at quarter of 12? Ill leave at two minutes to 12. But the trouble is, there are no clocks on the wall. Everybody thinks theyre going to leave at two minutes to 12.</p> <p>Confidence in markets and in institutions, its a lot like oxygen. When you have it, you dont even think about it. Its indispensable. You can go years without thinking about it. When its gone for five minutes, its the only thing to think about. The oxygen has been sucked out of the credit markets and confidence. And there has to be - its got to be given a jump start, basically.</p> <p><strong>Sur les perspectives d’avenir</strong></p> <p>I think confidence will come back. I will tell you this, this country is going - will be living better ten years from now than it is now. It will be living better 20 years from now then ten years from now. We had a seven for one improvement in the average Americans standard of living in the 20th Century. We had the Great Depression. We had two World Wars. We had the flu epidemic. We had oil shock. We had all these terrible things happen, but something about the American system unleashed more and more of the potential of human beings over that 100 years, so that we had a seven for one improvement.
You have centuries where if you got a 1 percent improvement, then theres something. So weve got a great system. And weve got more productive capacity now than we ever have. The American workers more productive than hes ever been. Weve got more people to do it. Weve got all the ingredients for a sensational future. Its just right now the athletes on the floor. This is a super athlete.
Weve done darn well. Well do better in the future. Im not worried about the country. Im just worried about anything that gums up the potential of the country and right now it`s pretty gummed up.
