If AIG collapsed, it would have buckled our financial system and wrought economic havoc on the lives of millions of our citizens.
— Henry Paulson
When you're boiling in oil, in the middle of a crisis, the challenges are so consuming there is no time for anything else.
It is important that China stop its over-reliance on municipal debt to finance infrastructure. I take comfort in the fact that China's leaders understand this.
I believe some of the tensions the U.S. has had with Russia and that the Europeans have had with Russia... China is taking advantage of some of those dealings.
China has a more assertive, proactive foreign policy as its interests are growing around the world.
I'll be voting for Hillary Clinton, with the hope that she can bring Americans together to do the things necessary to strengthen our economy, our environment, and our place in the world.
When it comes to the presidency, I will not vote for Donald Trump.
I am suspicious of career engineers, people that plan it out every step of the way.
As our relationship with China grows and matures, tensions will naturally emerge.
I supported some very, very objectionable things in terms of bailouts or rescues, but I did it not for Wall Street, but for the American people.
Predators, they're the best coal miners' canary. When they're gone, you've got a sick ecosystem.
Every good businessman or woman carefully analyzes all the available facts before making a decision.
Foreclosures are a significant problem; they're an economic problem.
I've got to say our banking system is a safe and a sound one. And since the days when we've had federal deposit insurance in place, we haven't had a depositor who's got less than $100,000 in an account lose a penny. So the American people can be very, very confident about their accounts in our banking system.
The idea of being Treasury secretary in the abstract appealed to me, but my initial inclination was that it wasn't right for me to take that step.
If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States, if they are clogged with illiquid assets, they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution.
I do not believe the United States and the Americans are going to let Donald Trump become president... I think the challenge is Donald Trump, with his anti-China rhetoric and with his anti-trade rhetoric, is going to make the job for all of us more difficult going forward.
The cheapest and cleanest energy is the energy you don't use.
I would come to New York, work, and then get out of New York. I didn't go out to dinner with other people on the Management Committee. I didn't socialize. I didn't politick.
A study by Treasury economists estimated that a country with a tax rate one percentage point lower than another country's attracts 3 percent more capital. It's not surprising then, that average OECD corporate tax rates have trended steadily downward.
When you look at territorial disputes, there are good arguments on any sides. I think it's important that we don't take sides on legitimacy.
No matter how the financial system is set up, no matter what the economic system is, as long as you have people, you're going to have financial crises; you're going to have bubbles that manifest themselves in the financial system.
I can't help but think what would have happened if a divisive character such as Trump were president during the 2008 financial crisis, at a time when leadership, compromise, and careful analysis were critical.
If the only way you can do well is working more hours than someone else, you're going to lose out because there's always going to be someone who is going to work more.
When I left the Treasury, there was a poll that showed - and I don't remember the numbers exactly right - something like 90% of the people were against TARP. It prevented a disaster, but you don't get credit for a disaster that people don't see.
China's growth and stability is a vital issue for all nations.
I know the automakers are important to the United States. We care about the automobile industry.
I grew up on a farm - I know the smell of horse manure. It does smell better than pig manure.
I think history shows that countries have to have some kind of a threshold level of economic success before they begin to have the means and the will to focus on the environment.
I want to remind you of one thing, which is, when I look around the world and look at the long-term economic fundamentals we have in this country, I think they compare favorably with what I see in any major developed country in the world.
Moral hazard is something I don't take lightly.
There's a great lack of financial literacy and understanding in this nation, even among college-educated people.
I think it is asking a lot for regulators to be perfect - because they won't be.
Xi Jinping is a very strong and ambitious leader who is looking to make a lot of changes in China. He is not looking to follow a Western model based on universal suffrage. That is for sure.
Size is the enemy of excellence in investment banking, particularly when you are trying to put together two different cultures.
I'd have liked to have been another Faulkner, of course.
All of us would like to have our children and their grandchildren grow up with at least the level of prosperity that we had. In the U.S., we seem to be very selfish because the older generation is not making the sacrifices.
I think the Chinese are wise. After all, they know the U.S. is in a very different league than Russia. The U.S. is the major power in the world, and the US-China relationship... is very important to global stability, to sustain global economic growth.
Let's not forget, what TARP did allowed us to move overnight and put capital into hundreds of banks, and that money came back plus $32 billion.
Simply put, a Trump presidency is unthinkable.
I don't know anyone that says, 'Boy, I had a great career, and I'm happy because I screwed up my life outside of my career, my family life.' There's no one that feels that way.
Frankly I'm a bit concerned when it comes to U.S.-China relations.
It's better to have the taxpayer pay for the losses than have the United States of America become an economic wasteland. If the financial system collapses, it's really, really hard to put it back together again.
Sovereign wealth fund money should be welcomed. The only way not to welcome that money is when it's politically driven.
After I left Treasury, I think in some ways it was harder to sit there and be writing my book... listening to all the criticism.
I've long believed the environmental issue is an economic issue and a political issue. The three are entwined. You can't build prosperity on any basis other than a long-term basis, and you can't do that if you don't have a healthy environment.
Until we stem the housing correction, until the biggest part of that is behind us and we have more stability in housing prices, we're going to continue to have turmoil in the financial markets.
I see nothing easy in Washington. I see either analytically simple things that are politically complex or those that are politically complex and analytically complex. I mean, look at immigration reform, you know? It is, I think, analytically easy, but politically very, very complex and very difficult.
I hate good press, and I abhor bad press.
I look forward to the day when China has a truly market-determined solution... To get there, you need to have a currency that is market-determined, an open capital market, and you are going to need a competitive, open financial system.
