Geithner On Stabilizing Banks And Economy
Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner explains that banks "need to raise capital" on the "Charlie Rose" show.
GEITHNER: Well, again, this is a -- this is a normal thing. You know, banks normally in some -- need to raise capital. Supervisors tell banks they need to raise capital. That’s a normal part of the business. What we did here in this context was to take a more conservative look and look ahead to what may happen in the future and in the case we face a deeper recession as a way to lift more definitively this cloud of uncertainty over the financial system, and that disclosures will be enormously important. But this is a normal part of the way crises get resolved, and again, there will be some institutions that don’t need additional capital. They’ll be able to begin to repay the government. That’s very helpful, enormously helpful to confidence. That will give us more resources to devote to small banks and make sure there’s credit markets opening up. And some banks are going to have to raise additional capital, and they’ll have a bunch of different ways that they can do that.
(Courtesy Charlie Rose)
