CNN

Kind of like Bush is the worst president of modern times?

Steve Forbes must be covering something up. He probably advised Paulson that he was going to have to "diss" him a bit, but "that it's all part of the game, brother".

You know what makes me shake my head with a pitying smile? That the comments on her made by people who are against Obama and revering Bush, are made by people with the worst grammar and spelling. Not exactly the wording, but Churchill said something like, "Democracy sounds great until you spend five minutes talking to the average voter." Sad that the most educated people of this country are going to suffer greatly because of the uneducated's voting for Bush for the past two elections. And that, my friends, is the truth.

If Forbes is so smart why don't he become Treasury Secretary. I hate in when the news media bring in these people to sit around a table to critizise what other people are devoting their time and livlihood to the government. Then they state it should have been done this way. When it really comes done to it, it is all guess work what makes economy propser. An other plans fail. It certainly doesn't mean a man like Forbes has all the answers just because he has a magazine that says he's so smart. Forbes please don't run for President again. The American people have already showed you how smart they think you really are.

Is it ironic that the revolution of this country was due to taxation without representation and the overextending central bank?

President Bush as well as all other officials were elected by all whether you voted for him or not. If those that you voted for did not win, then it is just as much your fault because you did not help enough to get the person you wanted elected. The belly aching, finger pointing, Monday morning quarterbacking and name calling are child's play and easy. If you want things to be different, then make a difference and start locally. Work with your city, county and state officials to improve your communities and government. If they are going to do the job, fire them and get someone new. It works that way at our jobs, why not in government. They get a paycheck that you sign every election day.

When all is said and done, I hope Paulson does not get to keep the coffers he is storing up for himself, his buddies, and Bush's "team". I hope they all will be investigated thoroughly, immediately, and without ceasing until ALL is answered for. I hope they reap what they sow.

I am still hopeful that we will be able to fix this mess pretty soon. In the meantime, it's pretty sad to see the real Bush, now that his lambs clothing is off. He's been shedding for awhile, but now, pretty ugly.

I imagine the republicans are more angry with him because he used them, their values, their faith, their principles–he used them all and left them in pieces.

I recently heard of this thing called a constitution. I decided to take a look and couldn't find anywhere that says you can take tax payer money and give it to private corporations.

I'd like to see Robert Reich stand up and say that !

the IRS, the banks, credit card companies have been bleeding the american people dry for decades. Now that we are totally drained they and have no disposable income to inject into the economy they are failing. the chickens have come home to roost. they have destroyed what makes the economy strong and that is the AMERICAN PEOPLE. All these giant companies will fail as long as they continues to bleed us through exorbitant bank fees, overdraft fees, high interest rates etc

WORST?

Why is it that whenever there is trouble we find it easy to blame or call those charged with responsibilities names, instead offering a solution?

DEAR FORBES, You Sir is the worst person for voicing a reflection of your FOBIA in others.
PERIOD.

Paulson needs to be arrested along with the Bush Administration. It is too many charges and counts for me to name!!

The Bush administration has, in itself, been a total scam and only a "Get Richer Quick" scheme for the country"s rich and shameless.

January 20th won't come quick enough.

From the beginning of the Bush administration to the end, the American people have paid a big and bitter price. It would be a best sellers if someone could figure out how big the price tags has been.

Yet everyday, we hear conservative talk show people talk about socialisms, liberalism, and unpatrioticism. How can you steal so much from the public and still have people believe your party can provide honest leadership.

Here's an angle people aren't talking about. When BushCo wasn't able to bully and con the public into handing Social Security over to Wall St., they had to devise another way to rob the People (treasury). Hence, the $700 billion Wall St. bailout.

Amazing that the braintrust called Congress demand that the domestic auto industry lick their boots for a LOAN, after blithely handing over $700 billion taxpayer dollars to the pirates of the banking industry and Wall St. What a con job our dear "Representatives" swallowed!

There darn well better be some people in orange jumpsuits when this is all over, or I believe the People will have their day in the Court of street justice! This isn't over by a long shot!

I feel very uncomfortable with the government engaging in all of these 'bailouts/rescue packages' for companies that are not performing well. Thousands of Americans are still losing jobs, the markets seem to be more unstable than ever, and I just don't believe anyone really knows what to do at this point.

I'm surprised more people aren't outraged by all of this.

Wow, Ken in Dallas, a blogger who has some grasp of the actual facts instead of the standard left/right rhetoric that usually fills these pages. It does seem that Obama’s centrist pragmatic inclined economics team will be better. They could hardly do worse.

If these morons like Paulson are going to give vast amounts of my money to banks, why can't my Congress demand that the money will be used as it is supposed to used: To Open Up The Credit Markets! Most of these banks have been hoarding the money and buying other banks with it! I mean, it's like me taking out a car loan and buying a turkey farm with the money. I am very skeptical of the large mounts of money being given out with no strings. It sounds like a "pay my friends on Wall Street before my Republican Administration ends" scam. My only other probelem with all of this mess is our Democratic Congress is letting it happen. Some on this Comment Forum suggest they (the Democrats) were "duped" into doing it. Do you really believe that? If you all do, I've got some swamp land in South America I want to seel ya! I think all of them know exactly what they are doing. Lobbiest have mauch power and influence in the hall of Congress.

Remember George Bush did not WIN the elections twice. He stole the elections. Bush is the worst president the US will and ever had. Whenever anyone with any sense stands up to him, he gets rid of them, eg. Colin Powell.

America is paying dearly for the Republicans choosing of someone who has no sense. A president who cannot think, is not an intellect, and has brought down the USA and the world at large. Bush should be charged for all the crimes/sufferings he committed his 8 years in office. This is not what the people of America deserve.

Nobody of any worth signed on Bush's admin team especially during the second term. Look who is the head of the Dept of Interior-Dirk Kempthorne who was the worst and most crooked governor we have had in the State of Idhao and we have produced such winners as Larry Craig and Helen Chenoweth-Long live the Robber Baron Republicans-thanks for putting us back to our grandparents times in terms of wealth.

i pray that we make it to jan 20, 2009. it seems light years away.

A question rather than a remark denagrading Mr. Paulson or the current administration. How is it that all the people in high places in DC (economic advisors to the government) did not have any idea that these problems were on the forefront? Why are we still paying exhorbitant salaries to these people and not removing them from their positions.

Relative to the bailout of "The Big 3", why not bring back the ability of taxpayers to write off the interest on new car loans as it was several decades ago, but limit it only to those vehicles built in the US. It seems that would be more practical than just giving them 25 billion at taxpayer expense without seeing a benefit to those paying the money
(the taxpayer). It seems it might help stimulate sales of new cars and continued employment of those in the industry.

All of you are delsusional idiots if you think Obama will make thngs better. He merely looked at what FDR did and decided to do it again. You can expect 10 YEARS of depresion, not 18 months under the Democrat administration with a hefty tax increase for all of us to boot. The only idiots here all of us. Check out economists Nouriel Roubini and Peter Schiff and get a clue.

Welcome to the fire. Frying Pan Paulson may look a lot better once a Fed President gets hold of our checkbook...

And by the way, the new guy's not exactly 'change', is he?

I'm a 50 year old graduate from The Wharton School of Business. I'm one of the most capitalistic guys you'll ever find. I believe in the American free enterprise system.

However, the risk versus reward equation is skewed in this country. Our senior-most executives are paid far in excess of the value that they create. In some cases, they are NO VALUE ADDED.

I can't justify paying ANYBODY ..... and I mean ANYBODY more than $2M per year as a salary and total compensation (salary, stock, options, deffered cash) should be limited to $4M per year and should be at risk for at least 5 years.

Nobody is worth more than that. Nobody does that much good for the country or an organization that they need more than $2M. How many Ferraris can a guy buy, how many 8,000 ft2 mansions?, how large a diamond should he buy for his supermodel girlfriend that he keeps on the side?

If shareholders won't put bounds on this then the government should. It is determental to the nation's interest for these types of inequities to exist.

Honestly, CEO's making 100 times what the floor worker makes is absurd. 10-to-20 times ... reasonable ... 100-times-to-5,000 times .... that's IDIOTIC

The worst treasury secretary...the worst president...the worst vice-president...the worst defense secretary...in this century

Paulsen shoud go to jail just like Bush and the rest of his Admin.

This entire mess goes back to Clinton and the idiots who elected HIM twice!!! Bush just inherited the mess! I can't believe there are so many people in our country stupid enough to elect Obama and continue this downward spiral. Talk about not knowing what he's doing. Our country elected someone who is all talk with very little actual experience (look at his Congressional record)

Wasn't that cool how he told us that he believed 100% that a major institution wouldn't fail.... right before CitiGroup took a huge hit?

The Bush Administration is staffed by crooks and failures.

I think this financial failure was Bush's final gift to the American people. It fits the bill – it put fear into Americans. Was there really the need to come out that Friday in September that said if we didnt come up with $700b by Monday that the whole economy would fail. The media (like always only having one story at a time to repeat over and over and over) kept the fear growing until something really does have to be done. Paulson was just an arrogant tool used to give more money to the rich people before a sensible administration came into power.

I did vote for Obama but I am cynic (and pessimistic) enough to believe that things may get better but not by a whole lot...That's because there are too many cooks in the kitchen and too many hands in the pot (and too many egos in the administration)...and too little time (say 18-20 months) before the next election cycle begins...Sorry if I sound too gloomy...I have lived in the US for three decades and I never felt as bad about state of affairs as I do now.

The healing is coming – we're in the painful scabby part right now, but soon the new skin will emerge and the healing will commence! bye-bye -bush and your posse too.

I beleave that the Cpuntry needs help but to allow certain Banks to file bankruptcy and then help city group now is unbeleaveable. I for one think that the Oil, Banking, Insurance, and the government are greedy money hungry animals who want the rest of america to suffer, and then get on there knees and kiss butts of the rich to eat!!!!!! we need to get things back to normal like earn a living wage not expect to get rich but beable to pay yur bills and live with in our means. Every time the little people get a little a head then the prices go up. This is so funny back in sept. a few states had a large wind storm here in Ohio we went with out electric for a few days some little over a week. what do you think AEP is asking its customers to do Yea Pay for the over charge that it cost them for over time. we have paid for our use of the electric and they make enouph pophet to cover the cost.

Elect more engineers to Congress ... they think for a living .... they are trained to contemplate the bad "what ifs" and take mitigating steps. Engineers in Congress would prevent this stagnation we're experiencing.

We need some intelligence in Congress. We've got women engineers, black engineers, hispanic engineers, and white male engineers. We don't have to sacrafice diversity for brains.

All Congress does is point fingers after the fact. They don't add any value ... and certainly don't worke to prevent graft, corruption, mismanagement, etc.

most or should I say some people voted for G.W. Bush twice, you reap what you sow enough said as the economy goes towards that downward spiral, but wait Bush did do one thing good I guess, social security was saved!!

This entire administration is the worst in history. I just hope the damage can be repaired.

Quite a downfall in 2 short years: from Master of the Masters of the Universe to the most reviled man in America not in a prison.
In fairness, he cannot disclose that he has encumbered the Treasury with contingent liabilities in excess of $2 trillion and rising with each new takeover. Every takeover means that AIG, Citicorp, etc. cannot be allowed to default on any of their claims since the US has stood in. If these failures went through bankruptcy court, there would be some severe haircuts given to the hedge funds, etc. that brought them down. Can't let that happen!
Let's see if Congress cancels the capital gains tax treatment on hedge fund managers payouts. That is a no-brainer but cuts right to the quick on how corrupt Congress is.
You can't really fault Barney Frank for wanting to drop a paltry $25 billion on the auto industry when Treasury is throwing $100 of billions out the windows.

Well did you ever think that if Barney Frank, Polosy and other congress members told the truth this might not have happened.....I moved from Ma. 3 yrs ago and i cant believe they were dumb enough to put Barney Frank back in congress....Sometimes I wonder where the brain is

Let's drop the myth that these guys are rare geniuses that have to be given wide latitude in both their authority and the blind trust that Congress places in them.

There are thousands of highly intelligent Ivy-leagure graduates (Columbia, Harvard, Dartmouth, Wharton) MBAs with many years of experience in industry, finance ...(not just banking) ... that know far more than the current members of Congress and are far more trustworthy, and less selfish, than the current crop of executives on Wall Street, including Paulson.

Put a team of smart outsiders in a room and they will figure it out. With a team, any "pitfalls" will be revealed ahead of time.

Paulson is fruit of the posioned tree and is only interested in feathering the nest of his country club buddies .... we saw the same thing with Bush, Cheney and their oil-industry buddies. When will Congress wise up and expect graft & corruption FIRST from these revolving names instead of writing these blank checks?

We need a bunch of early 40 somethings that are unknown to the popular press but that are brilliant and we need to incentivize them with a life long pension for 12 years of good work. Give them the kind of golden parachutes that Congress has. In exchange for that, we can get them to leave their Vice President & Director level jobs at America's best run corporations.

Once again the American people have been hoodwink & bamboozled by the Bush administration, first the war & now the 700billion bailout!

Hopefully Pres. Elect Obama & his administration will pride themselves on honesty and real solutions.

More incompetence from the Bush Administration. But after all of their failures, do we expect any less? I sincerely hope that they are all subpoena-ed and lawsuited into jail or poverty once they're out of office.

I wish you all would stop complaining about bush. Apparently he was good enough too be elected twice. and if you look back congress went democratic 2006 when the economy went haywire.

57 days, people. Just hold on to your life raft for 57 more days.

Paulson is about all anyone could expect from the worst presidential administration in US history!

No kidding! This is true of all the Bush/Cheney appointments!

This is the worst government in history. Why should the citizens have to bail out Citi-Group and these other failed industries. How about their rich ceos pick up the slack with their millions? I barely make 20k a year and my taxes go to these shmucks? No thank you. Tell the IRS and their cronies to get their hands out of my pockets!!!!!! Paulson should have to fork up all of his riches. I am sick of this country and its stupidity.

Much of the financial mess has come from financial executives misleading others until no one has faith in anything. Unfortunately, the ever shifting bailout looks like more lies and misrepresentations

The total failure of leadership from the administration is frightening. Lame duck yes, but it doesn't have to be this lame.

Secretary Paulson makes a fine target for our frustrations, but he does have a boss, somewhere. Has anyone seen George W. Bush around?

What does one expect from the Village Idiot???? Birds of a feather flock together. One surrounds themselves with what one knows......nothing!

A truly intelligent person surrounds themselves with those smarter than they are...........

Please, can Barack start early!!???

I agree the Paulson is bad, but what about Congress? They didn't require anything of him.

It's ultimatly their responsibility what is done with our tax money. Quit bashing Bush...what about Reid and Peolsi who did not require any plan from Paulson and will still be there after January 20th??

Are you still gonna blame Bush for it???

Thank God someone said it out loud. Between him and the Shrub it will be a plesant surprise if this country survives until January 20, 2009, a day that will be noted in history as the End of an Error.

I don't trust anyone who has worked under George Bush PERIOD! What a puppet he turned out to be.

Wait till they find out that the US taxpayer will need trillions to fix the economy that all these wizards failed to regulate and wall street was able to take billions of dollars from the investors. Can't even play these kind of money games in Las Vegas,

The ridiculous thing about this exchange is that Forbes and Paulson are both trying to live out the same laissez-faire magic-market fantasy as got us into this mess in the first place. Make no mistake, this is another vivid example of Republicans eating their own.

The truth is that neither one of these clowns understands markets. They ignore the fact that there's an essential tension in the market system, that "free markets" are always an ideal and never an actuality. If you don't regulate the operation of markets, especially in regard to anti-trust actions, economies of scale will tempt market players to consolidate, until a small number of players controls the market. Either you compromise market freedom a little by regulation, or you end up with a private player, accountable to no one, in control of the market.

Consolidation is also a trade-off. It enables players to gain strength and efficiency, but it also consolidates risk, and raises the prospect of individual players growing so essential to the market's operation that they are de facto public trusts, companies like AIG, Lehman, and Citi that can take the whole economy with them if they fail. When we allow such de facto public trusts to exist without being recognized, we fact the worst of all possible outcomes: corporations enabled to hold the government hostage

It's too late to rail about the unfairness of it all, the mistakes have already been made, the blind eye already turned. There's nothing left to do but put in the hard work it will take to fix this. We might at least hold our leaders responsible for learning from this fiasco, though.

Again, Congress cries that someone sold them an idea under false pretenses......I say this Congress is the worst in history....let us fire all of them. Whenever anything goes wrong, Barney and the other incompetents in Congress say someone lied to them. It's time for them to take responsibility and know what is going on. They are all so busy running for re-election that they do not do the people's work. Term Limits, Please.

What did you expect- this whole "bail out" is nothing short of robbing and shifting of the treasury to enrich the greedy. Bush and his team have been waiting for the right moment to do it. What we have had in power for the past eight years is the MAFIA. I find it hard to believe that no one has been held accountable or ANY arrests have been made. I guess the the law only applies to the average taxpayer- we are the ones to get arrested for petty crimes or paying a penalty for speedind and lighter offences. Welcome to AMERICA.

What would you expect from the WORST PRESIDENT EVER? What cracks me up is Bush weaseled his way into office not once but twice. Don't look at me I didn't vote for him.

Paulson stimulated false fear into the American political system, then forced Congress to essentially hand over money with no oversight which he used to line the pockets of his Wall Street buddies before the clock ran out on the Bush Administration. What he couldn't give away, he punted to Obama. This clown is at best clueless and at worst diabolical.

George Bush, in his infinite "gut" wisdom, has for eight years appointed and rewarded those of astonishing incompetence eclipsed only by his own......Brown, Rumsfeld.....Paulson is just one more bird of a feather.

Birds of a feather.... almost the whole current administration is incompetent.

For those of you who haven't heard, the campaign is over. Hoping and praying for our nation to fail is as unpatriotic, stupid and self-centered as you can get, wihch is exactly what some are doing by their ulrapartisan sniping and praying Obama fails. The guy hasn't even taken office yet, how about waiting to see what he does when he actually has the power to do something?

Yes, I agree Paulson has been horrible in Treasury. Bush has had a tendency to reward people as mediocre as himself, so it is no surprise. Perhaps he finds intelligence and competence to be too much competition? No matter, he's already clocked out and will be officially gone soon. I only hope he doesn't burn the whole country down on his way out the door.

the very people who were supose to be helping the american people are the ones that have led us to the slauter. maybe we'll be strong and prosperous again, but people like paulson have all but destroyed us.

Welfare for the well-heeled.

Could Republican's be any more hypocritical – always whining about socialism on one hand, yet begging for Government money on the other?

Welcome to the Fascist States of America.

Obama's plan isn't any better: "Let's give everyone government jobs! The government can always print more money or we can just get the money from the rich." Brilliant!

I and anyone that has left a comment on this article, in all probability is unqualified to properly judge how any person in the position of secretary of the treasury manages the position, especially in financial times such as these. So please do readers a favor, and focus on solutions instead of bashing. Everyone knows how poor of a leader Bush is. Get over it. It's time the country stops acting like an abused ex-spouse, constantly living life vicariously through the very person that made one miserable.

Accountability!!

Too long has members of our government and private sectors been allowed to do whatever they want without worry of consequences. Hold them accountable like every other citizen. There is no such thing as white collar crime. It’s all crime. If we can send a young person (or any person) to prison for possessing drugs who cause no harm to anyone else, but let these dogs and thieves who destroy the lives of thousands (if not millions), then why should our children listen to us?
Accountability!!!

Would it be possible to have the swearing in of the new President now and not wait until late January. Bush and his trophies could go home.

It shouldn't have escaped anyone with common sense that this whole issue came down on us hard and fast from the Bush Administration in late August, just like the rush to war did a few years earlier. All the scammers from Wall Street to D.C. need to be found out and sent to prison. Why is it that companies are allowed to get so big that they "cannot fail". There have been federal laws and regulations in place for the SEC and Antitrust Division to monitor and make sure U.S. corporations don't get so big that the taxpayer has to keep propping them up because failing is not an option.

This is the start of Forbes' 2012 campaign.

Steve Forbes is a fanatical proponent of the free-market religion that has, as it was practiced, failed our nation and the world so miserably, He has real guts to surface as a reborn critic of Paulson, a saint of his former Wall Street religion. It is time for silence on his part and on the parts of others who have fostered the ridiculous idea that business should be left to do whatever it wants, with no input from the societies in which it flourishes. I guess the system is only imperfect when Forbes loses money. This is not the time for belated recognition that the Bush administration has been staffed by incompetents who poked fun at anyone who thinks. Forbes should express his support for the Obama administration, which will have to confront the train wreck created by people wjho share his beliefs. Name-calling seems to be a hard habit to break; it's easy, while finding solutions is difficult.

I am absolutely incensed that we would use the bailout funds to cover the reckless policies of Citigroup, but not use any for the Big 3 Automakers who have done nothing wrong directly except have no innovation in their business models...

We are rewarding the criminals!!!!!!
Insane!!!!!

That is odd that the welfare program Paulson set-up for banks was not presented truthfully, WOW. Hard to believe that happened. I am weary of all the claims by banks how tough it is for them. Come on out here to the real world if you want tough. As long as we prop up these failed banks and business' we will have this problem.

The worst president picked the worst Treasury Secretary...why would that be a surprise?

Look at Paulsons professional record (Goldman Sachs), and you'll see the *huge* conflict of interest. What else would you expect from him?

The people have NO voice.

Well as much as I disagree with the Bush Administration, you can not blame the economic meltdown on Paulson. When the predatory lending began Paulson wasn't even the Treasurer yet. He's catching the blame because heads have got to roll.

Yep, love the way the financial orgs and banks were handed money without a required prerequisite of plans for the use of it but the auto makers are being forced to have a plan before the money will even be considered.
Congress and Paulsen need to open their eyes – what will a reorganization bankruptcy of the auto makers do to the financial institutions and the economy? Oh, right – they'll just run to Congress for more help while the taxpayer goes further down the drain.
This current administration is not just a lame duck group, they're a dead duck and they've decided to take all of us down with them.
Problem is, we've got 2 months before the new administration can take office and even get started. What else can happen before then?

The duck isn't so much as lame as it is lobotomized. Bush is spending his waning days posing for pictures and trying to loosen environmental regulations on land, water, and air standards. He has treated the United States like his personal diaper and expects someone else to clean it up.

I'm sorry but it seems that the automakers are being required to submit a business plan to get some cash....Where is the business plan for Citigroup? AIG? More of the same? Is the business plan really that the Feds will buy $ 7 billion worth of a failing company and then underwrite the future losses?????? There is no plan other than to throw money at it. They have built themselves a big financial house of cards and I don't believe any of them knows how to keep it from falling.

I have to agree with Jeff here, the American citizens and our economy has been scammed. 8 trillion dollars gone from the American economy. To every American with a little common sense has witnessed fraud, and the American Citizen has seen their retirements and savings robbed. But we have not see one arrest? We have not seen any of these robber barons going to prison?
Market confidence can not be restored if the American investor can not trust the Wall Street investers, Banks, and Federal(Big Brother)Government that their hard earned money is not going to be secure.

Wouldn't it be cool if the President showed some leadership at this stage?

Oh that would be so cool.

Alack and alas, why would it happen now?

Our "leaders"wont give the big three 25 billion, yet they inject another bank with money. Looks like another at least 2 years of the same stuff. Tax and spend...... tax and spend. They are all the same, and neither group has Americans interest in mind. Seems to be a continued downward spiral and they don't care, Dems or reps. What a joke, change my butt. Here come the Clintons.

Paulson is incompetence and a scammer. He came out of Goldman Sach. 100Billion USD went down the toilet. Last week he announce the bailout shows some positive effect but in facts like his boss George Bush, the economy is worsen than before.. .. All of these bailouts are scams. All the corporate exec got all of the $$. The American truly indeep trouble and they don't really care much..

Forbes gives Paulsen a very bum rap. It is only because of Paulsen's steady hand in dealing with this totally unprecedented series of financial events (the "Perfect Storm" of financial phenomena?) that the World is not in total chaos. The team in place, Paulsen, Geithner, Bernacke, but particularly Paulsen and his very personal clout, make a positive outcome of these terrible events possible and likely.

Bad guy: Rubin. Best guy: Paulsen. I've never met an unimpressive Goldman Sachs guy.

That's a little like the captain of the Exonn Valdeze accusing the captain of the Titanic of being a bad driver. I have a timeline to offer for things to start getting better.... in 57 days 3 hours and 55 minutes we get another chance. I used to think of 01-20-09 as Bush's last day and that gave me some joy. But now I see it as Obama's first day and I cant wait.

Lot of people think he is a financial wizard but it did not show up during his term as treasury secretary. particularly the way he wanted the 700 billion dollars to bailout the banking industry without explaining to the tax payers or the legislators how exactly the money would be spent and how the home owners in mortagage trouble would be resuced. In the end it seemed like a plan to help his rich banking industry friends. No transperancy at all and the problem still remains, well - a big problem

I disagree with Forbes and most of the postings here. Paulson has been Treasury Secretary for just over 2 yrs. This mess has been brewing for decades. There have been many more recent contributors to the current problems who have played a much bigger part. How about Reagan, Clinton, Greenspan, and Lil' Bush? Paulson has always believed in reigning in free market cowboys as opposed to the Bush admin where free market is a mantra but that's certainly something he didn't have the time or authority to pursue.

I do agree that Paulson needs to be more transparent with his actions, his rationale for those actions, and the long term plan.

Just great......at the most critical time in our nation's security, we had the most incompetent President the country has seen, and now in an dire economic times we have the most incompetent Treasury Security. Just wonderful.

I remember few weeks ago Donald Trump gave the guy an "A" for his performance!

Steve Forbes is just plain full of it and just as WRONG about the economy as Bush, Paulson, and their hero Reagan was. Forbes supported and indeed advocated for most of the policies that have gotten us here.

We have had 30 years of the wealthy getting wealthier (like Forbes) while American industry has been frittered away on junk bonds, S&L, dotbomb, Enron, and now banking bomb paper pushing/manipulation.

Meanwhile, increasingly Americans have come to devalue industrial and productive work and take part –along with so-called leaders like Forbes– in the drift toward phony paper nation...

I blasted my Senator and congressman here in Vermont and told them not to suppport the original bailout package.

They were conned(and they are Democrats!!) by the Bush administration. What happened to the plan for using the bailout money to buy up subprime derivatives..and shore up the housing market?

To bail out these behemoths without oversight is the height of irresponsibility. Where was their 'plan?' What did the executives at the top give up? What a sham. Good riddance...

How did this happen....? Because back in 2004, Americans were so scared of Muslims and terrorism that no one stopped to think. Sure, Kerry was a less than perfect alternative to Bush but could he have been that much worse? This administration kept Americans scared and constantly peeping through the curtains looking for the terrorist that were coming to kill them all while they robbed the country blind. Many Americans bought into the fear-mongering instead of asking questions and finding out what the true deal was! It seems the tricks of the snake oil salesman still work because people are still dumb enough and fearful enough to believe them.

Steve Forbes comments about Paulson were far too kind. Both Paulson and whomever appointed him and has allowed him to remain the U.S. Treasury secretary should all be fitted with orange jumpsuits. We should have known when Paulson was part of the first Goldman Sachs debacle that he was not the man for the job. I don't understand why speaker of the house Pelosi isn't calling for a grand jury investigation of Paulson and Bernacky. This whole thing stinks to high heaven and should not be allowed to continue under the new administration, let alone the current one. Throw the bums out!

i sure hope that after recounts and re votes we can get 60 in the senate so democrats dont need the hateful ignorant republicans for a single vote. then we can repair all the damage the republicans did to this country.

Bush appoint incompetent people? This started way before Bush. You just don't know what was going on during the Clinton years.

Not only is he the worst- the job itself is unconstitutional, as is the FED.

There were peacful protests in 39 cities across the country saturday, did anyone hear about it at CNN?

They won't post the news- so why would they post this comment?

And every Congressman/woman who didn't listen to the warnings coming from certain individuals, like McCain, is one of the worst we've ever had. To try and blame Paulson for all the greedy and foolish maneuvers of the past 20 years is like blaming Bush for Katrina hitting the country. People believe this stuff and that's one reason why we're going down. I'd like to see Forbes elected to office and take the heat. Paulson turn around the econonmy? That will be Obama's job; just wait to see the mess we will be in then.

Paulson would be second worst to whoever Jimmy Carter's treasury secretary was. Obama's guy may claim the top spot. Our worst fears are being realized....TIME TO BUILD THE ARK!!!!

The worst President in history had the worst Treasury Secretary in history. Go figure....

I think that must be an understatement......but could we expect any more than incompetence with the way this administration has run the show for the past 8 years!!!
Obama has got his hands full when he takes over next year, but he will do his level best to try and sort this mess out I'm sure.....what a way to have to start a Presidency???

Right. He gives 100's of millions of dollars to firms like AIG, Citibank, Goldman Sachs etc., who don't do anything but shuffle money and paperwork around, without any plans, oversight, or regulation. But, zippo for the auto industry, who actually make products, and employ, either directly or indirectly, a couple million people. Brilliant! Let's let the auto companies go bankrupt, put those millions of people on unemployment, let the government pick up the retirement and medical costs of all the pensioners, and eliminate all the taxes that the auto companies pay. Wonder how much that will cost?

I so so agree this guy paulson is an idiot no wonder, Bush picked him , you don't have to be a brain surgeon to recognize incompetence , MY GOD

http://www.barackobamacans.blogspot.com

He's probably right but could Forbes do any better?

He is a former Hedge fund Manager. What do you expect? Even hedgefunds have taken a big beating this year. It is beyond his control. Blame it on Alan Greenspan. If he hhad not orchestrated Derivative trades and if SEC had not given a green signal, we would have not been in this situation. Our government is equally responsible for not keeping a check on this matter and WE the tax payers have to suffer for today's bad economy.

Surprise!! Paulson is a mirror of his boss, George Bush. Bush is without question on any front the worst president this country - probably even the world - has seen. We really should not expect much from Paulson since he has a penchant for following his role model.

Look at Katrina as another example of Bush's stupidity. Hence, follows his minion in Homeland Security saying things are under control and help was on the way.

Many more examples could be cited. As Bush goes, so goes the remainder of his appointees.

We should not expect more from Paulson. Incompetence has its way of rising to the highest levels of heirarchy.

Is it still news that Bush appoints incompetent people?

The top heavy corporate attitude can also be viewed as the worst form of capitalist greed since the depression.

Could he have waited to say this after Paulson is out? We still have a market that has confidence problems. Lets get those corrected among other things first, and then you can rip him a new one...

Forbes also said that the resaon the Stock Market is crashing is because Obama's insists on raising taxes of the top 5%, will increase captial gains tax from 15% to 28%, and repeal the Bush tax cuts.

People are getting out before January 20th before the government gets it all.

That doesn't make the news though.

Wouldn't be prudent.

Henry Paulson cares for no one but himself, Bush and his buddies on Wall Street. His is a joke and a fraud. This idiot is giving billions of dollars to these banks and investment firms with no stipulations attached to it. This guy should be removed from his post asap. I seriously don't know how much more this country can take of the leadership of Bush and Paulson at this point. These two idiots but a whole new meaning to "Lame Ducks."

Saying that Paulson is the worst Treasury Secretary in modern times is a woeful understatement. His decision to force Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy has caused numerous people, millions of people, around the world, their jobs, their life savings, their pensions. And it was not just forseeable but forseen and presented to Paulson in advance. So he knew. And the allegation that he is just stupid, though supported by his apelike manner and disjointed speaking style, can't be true, he ran Goldman Sachs, didn't he (The role of Goldman in causing this crisis will someday be told publicly, as was their role in causing the Great Depression, when Galbraith wrote his seminal work 20 years later). Anyway, we all await the Trial of Henry Paulson, he should pay for his crimes against humanity.

Bad?? I think the guy is completely worthless. I would go as far is saying he is the "worst Treasury Secretary ever".

well duh! it is less than two more months of him.....

Paulson is one of the main people responsible for the banking meltdown. He should absolutely be investigated and ultimately be behind bars. He told everyone that Fannie and Freddie were fine and that no oversight was needed. He didn't want the audit (money) trail to lead to him and his cronies. Despicable! He's a fox in charge of the hen house. You watch, when the time is right he'll pick up residence in a foreign country somewhere. What a slime ball.

wait a minute....are you trying to tell me that there is some aspect of the Bush Admin that is doing a less than fabulous job??
of all the crazy things to suggest...

ok....all kidding aside....Its simply amazing that things are AS good as they are....given the 8 years of misery and tragedy we have just witnessed...
who even knew it was possible to achieve this level of devastation....
a brand new human LOW in modern history...

scott in NH

If you dropped an alien w/ an MBA somewhere in the US and gave him only the facts of this bailout, he would come to the conclusion that this was one of the greatest corporate scams to ever happen in the history of the world. How did we let this happen? How did we let Paulson essentially open up the coffers for his buddies with no oversight, no transparency...nothing? It is truly time the 'common' people rise up.