Geithner Weighs Pace of Job Losses, Defends Stress Tests

Read the Full Transcript

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Secretary Geithner, thank you very much for talking with us.

• SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER:

  Thanks for having me.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  Unemployment first. What does it say about our economy when the loss of another 540,000 jobs is viewed as slightly encouraging?

• SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER:

  No, I agree with you. These are terrible numbers at one level, but it is important that the pace of job loss is slowing a bit. We had a long way to go, but that's an important beginning. But you're right, you know, half a million Americans lost their jobs again this month and this economy is still facing enormous challenges and there's just enormous pains still across the American economy.

• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  There are some economists who are saying what really alarms them is that a fourth — more than a fourth of the people who are out of work have been out of work for over six months. What does that say about where we are?

• SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER:

  Well, that's true. That's just another good measure, again, about how deep this recession it is and how much damage it has already caused. But the important thing — it's important to focus on the things that are getting better, is that the impact of what the president and this Congress have done already has made a material difference on confidence, the pace of declined economic activity has slowed. Things are stabilizing a bit. Financial markets are getting a little better, interest rates have come down, credit markets are opening up again, and that's an important beginning too.