Tim Geithner: “When Tim Geithner made his plan -- announced his plan to save the banks and more or less he didn't have a plan.”

The world still views the United States and the American political system as up to the challenge of delivering reforms that make our economy stronger and our fiscal position more sustainable.

If those were embraced by the Congress tomorrow, there would be substantially more confidence around the world in the capacity of this political system in Washington.

Again, our overall objective, and this has to be our shared objective, is to have the private markets, banks and investors, bear more of the risk in housing finance, not less of the risk.

The basic sense that you see across the country that the political institutions in this country are not up to the challenges we face, unable to act, unable to solve problems, is absolutely weighing on confidence.