Outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended the Obama administration's unpopular decision to push for a bailout of the nation's largest banks in a pair of exit interviews published Thursday, telling The Economist and The Wall Street Journal that history would validate the decision.
But Geithner admitted that bank bailouts would remain unpopular among voters who viewed such assistance as looking "like you're giving aid to the arsonist."
"There's no explanation powerful enough to soften the inevitable fear and anger and resentment that's going to come with a crisis that did so much damage to the innocent," Geithner told the Journal.
The Treasury Secretary admitted that the fear of a financial collapse required a government intervention that appeared "deeply unfair."
"The paradox is that the things that are ultimately just in terms of making sure you can protect the average person from a failing system require you to do things that are going to look deeply unfair and unjust because you have to try to make sure to prevent a collapse," he continued.
But Geithner told The Economist that despite the moral hazard created by such a response, the alternative was worse.
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