“The entire U.S. financial system and all the major firms in the country, and even small banks across the country, were at that moment at the middle of a classic run, a classic bank run,” the Treasury secretary told Bloomberg today, in response to a question about Goldman Sachs’s repeated insistence that it would have survived without government intervention. “None of them would have survived a situation in which we had let that fire try to burn itself out.”
Okay, you think. From the pitch of Tim’s voice and the redness in his ears, this is obviously getting to be a very sore subject; perhaps now Goldman Sachs will take stock of its situation, its robust health, luck with the ladies and general awesomeness, kiss itself on each one of its toned biceps and let the little guy have this one by admitting defeat? Sorry, no: “We didn’t know what was going to happen and were very glad as a result of government intervention we didn’t have to find out,” spokesman Lucas Van Praag responded.
Geithner Slams Bonuses, Says Banks Would Have Failed [Bloomberg]
