Henry Paulson

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to provide an update on the current state of the U.S. economy, our implementation of the financial rescue package and strategies for use of the remaining TARP funds.

Today we continue to work through a severe financial crisis. While we are making progress, the journey ahead will continue to be a difficult one. But I have confidence that we are pursuing the right strategy to stabilize the financial system and support the flow of credit into our economy. The new authorities Congress provided in October dramatically expanded the tools available to the federal government to address the needs of our system. As I and my fellow regulators stated clearly at the time, we now have a set of tools - new authorities in addition to our existing ones- that we can deploy in creative combinations ...

I’d Like an ‘S’ Please

Although I fully recognize that yesterday’s warm and fuzzy session was sponsored by the government’s latest acronym, I will have to admit that I am less than enamored with the name. Think about it; when Hank Paulson announced the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the name “TARP� made perfect sense. At that time, the plan was to round up $700 Billion of those nasty mortgage-backed securities and hide them under “the TARP� in order to keep the bad assets away from the good assets on bank and brokerage firm balance sheets. Then once the government tied down the corners and the loose ends – boom, everything was supposed to be fine.

And while I also recognize that the TARP isn’t exactly being used as it was originally intended, you have to give the powers-that-be some credit for coming up with not only what was a decent ...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After repeated efforts by Sen. John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Ranking Member Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Charles Schumer, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Banking, to raise awareness of the problems facing small firms, the Department of Treasury's announcement today signals acknowledgement from the administration that federal help is needed. In several letters to the administration, Sens. Kerry, Snowe and Schumer urged more aid for entrepreneurs, including most recently a letter to Treasury ...

Treasury Department announces new initiative under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Addressing a key request from the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), the U.S. Treasury Department announced today a new program to increase the availability of auto loans. "This is great news for consumers and auto dealers alike," said NADA Chairman Annette Sykora. "These steps will go a long way in helping to restore the consumer confidence that we need to return our country to economic stability. Dealers will ...

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A plan by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to improve market conditions for asset-backed securities - including those composed of SBA-backed small business loans - should be welcome news to credit-hungry small businesses across the country, said U.S. Small Business Administration Acting Administrator Sandy K. Baruah. The plan, announced today by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, establishes the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, to breathe new life into a secondary market that essentially ground to a halt in October. The TALF would make loans to investors who purchase ...