On this interpretation of the crisis, Geithner would go on to base an entire program of state building. If in 2008 what had been missing were adequate state powers of intervention, the answer was to equip the Fed and the Treasury with the right tools. What Geithner could not admit is the possibility that “Hank and Ben” had, in fact, made a mistake. That they might have underestimated the severity of the fallout that Lehman’s failure would cause. Or that Paulson, as a Republican Treasury secretary, might, in fact, have been constrained by politics. But this is what subsequent forensic
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