Where's Hank Paulson?

Maybe things will change by day's end, but for now, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke are avoiding the George W. Bush-Henry Paulson-era practice of emerging after these bad stock market days and trying to issue reassuring statements that don't actually succeed in reassuring anyone. Silence is golden. Not that I expect it to last. For now, my theory of the stock market rout is that it was triggered by the news that Secretary Geithner is expected to stay through the end of President Obama's (first? only?) term, and by Mr. Geithner's call in an August 3 Washington Post op-ed for "extending unemployment benefits; and financing infrastructure investments" as well as "tax reforms that will raise revenue."