Q Mr. Secretary, could you just put aside for a second the specifics of AIG or Merrill or Lehman Brothers and can you just tell us how this happened and how did we get there? I mean, beyond housing correction, take us back and explain to the American people, how did we get here?

SECRETARY PAULSON: Okay. I would say, first of all, we have excesses, and excesses that have built up for a long period of time, number one. Number two, we have an archaic financial regulatory structure that came in place a long time, after the Depression; it really needs to be rebuilt. And then there are certain things like, for instance, Fannie and Freddie. The roots of that, they're -- what we're doing is really living up to our responsibilities, which were rooted in congressional charters that go back decades and that have been perpetuated by Washington.

But again, what we're focused on right now I think is the future, and the future is stability, orderliness in our financial markets, and working through this period, and that's what we're doing.

seen at 09:00, 15 September in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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