Geithner Exclusive: Is the Recession Over?
ABC News
Transcript
going to turn now to my exclusive interview with treasury secretary Tim gner we sat down yesterday in the treasury Department's diplomatic room just after reports of a surge in November home sales to their highest rate in almost three years and I and I began by asking if this good news plus that dramatic drop in job losses that last month means that the recession is over economy is growing it's getting better getting stronger and I think most people would say that actually the economy is strengthening going into the end of the year accelerating now but the key thing is when we get job growth back well that's what I was going to ask you about you say it's accelerating we saw the job loss slow down a lot in November only 11,000 jobs loss are jobs going to be created in December I don't think so I think it's likely most economists would say that by the spring we'll have positive job growth and yoube before that but by then I think maybe before that though maybe maybe it's possible yet you know most of the country is still not feeling it we have a saw a new poll out says that fewer than one in three Americans believe your administration's policies will actually help them what do you say to them well you know it's a it's very hard still out there it's still a very tough economy the crisis just caused huge amount of damage to people's basic confidence in their economic future you see that in business confidence consumer confidence too but confidence is improving we asked your former fed colleague Alan Blinder to grade the administration on the last year gave you an a for restoring the financial system B for job creation a c on home foreclosures is that fair I don't think so uh I'd say it this way what the president did on house was to bring interest rates down in ways that had hugely powerful effects on home prices and stability he also put in place a program to help people who could afford to stay in their homes stay in their homes and that program has already put 34 of a million Americans into loan modifications that reduce their monthly payments very substantially well foreclosure is topped a million they are just right now and you know we think some of the banks say for Christmas they're going to hold off on foreclosing but do they need to be forced to do more I think it's very important Banks work very hard to start to rebuild trust and confidence of the American people in their institutions in the financial system they did a huge amount of damage to the country lost a huge amount of trust and confidence they need to work very hard to destroy that one of the ways to do that they get that I don't think they get it I think some banks do but I don't think all banks get it yet what do they need to do to show that they get it I think they need to make sure they're doing everything they can to help people who can afford to stay in their homes stay in their homes help make sure they are lending in communities that need access to credit let's talk about Healthcare I was talking to Howard Dean last week and and he told me that the Senate bill is just a bonanza for the health insurance industry this is an insurance companies dream this bill and I think it's gone too far and investors seem to agree as it became clear the Senate bill would pass health insurance stock hit a 52 we high so does that show that this Senate bill is Ban for the health insurance industry I don't think so I think this is a very strong package of reforms that'll be very good for the American economy and very good at trying to offer the prospect of improving care expanding access and lowering future cost meanwhile we saw a whole bunch of deal making in these Final hours on the Senate Bill Mitch McConnell the Senate Republican leader said the bill is just chock full of cheap deals and you know you see in Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson demands a permanent uh Federal commitment to his Medicaid expenses even as Republican Senate colleague from Nebraska says it's not right for Nebraska to get something that the other states don't get how can you justify it this is the most important set of reforms to one of the hardest problems facing the American economy facing American people that you've seen in decades and it offers the prospect of in a very short period of time having substantial expansion access to Affordable Care better incentives for how we use Health Care in a way that is fiscally responsible let's talk about your last year the market tanked when you first rolled out the bank plan and you face some pretty harsh criticism in Congress the public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job I don't think that you should be fired I thought you should have never been hired how much I was deserved oh you know this this is I knew from the beginning that this was going to be very hard and tough and the things that we thought were necessary to do were going to be deeply unpopular on both sides of the aisle but you know what we did to help break the back of this financial Panic was hugely affected at much lower cost than anybody expected we've had $90 billion come back from Banks Banks are repaying with interest to the tarp you're talking about and and that's just one measure of how quickly we've been able to get stability back one of the things we're seeing is that as the banks pay back this money they're raising a lot of uh stock money in the capital markets and they're actually paying themselves as they do that a column the New York Times this morning quoted one of the bankers saying thank you Mr gner yeah I saw that I saw that but overwhelmingly What's happen what you think when you saw it well again most of what's Happening Americans have taken some comfort in because we've been able to repair the most damaged parts of our financial system much more quickly at much lower cost to taxpayer you said earlier that some of the banks get it which ones don't that that's not a judgment for me to make or or want to share you share well you're going to make you're just not going to share it well I don't think I'll share that with you now let me just ask one final uh question it's not just about Christmas uh Beyond a few days off what is your real wish this Christmas oh I think Americans uh should go into the holidays and into next year with more hope with more hope about the future we can see now the beginnings of that process of healing confidence gradually improving and that's something we want to work very hard to reinforce Mr secretary thanks very much thank you nice to see you you can watch my entire interview with secretary gner at abcnews.com just click on GMA the full transcript is posted there as well