Tim Geithner: “You either prevent default, because default would be cataclysmic, or you don't.”

It is inconceivable that America would do that.

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.

It would be better for the country for Congress to provide some certainty about how we are going to address these long-term fiscal problems.