Geithner Says Events Won't Trigger Crisis

Washington, DC, Dec. 23, 2009--Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he's confident there won't be a repeat of last year's financial crisis.

"We are not going to have a second wave of financial crisis," Geithner said in an interview with National Public Radio's All Things Considered program. "We cannot afford to let the country live again with a risk that we are going to have another series of events like we had last year. That is not something that is acceptable."

Geithner denied that a serious new crisis could be triggered by problems with commercial real estate loans or with a sudden weakening in the value of the dollar.

"We will do what is necessary to prevent that and that is completely within our capacity to prevent," he said.

The same day President Barack Obama met with executives from a number of community banks, reiterating his plea for banks to do more to lend to small businesses. Obama took a more conciliatory tone with the leaders of the smaller community banks than he had in a meeting last week with leaders of the country's largest banks.

Asked about the economy, Geithner said there were a number of signs that economic conditions were beginning to improve in terms of consumer and business confidence rising. He said it was likely that overall economic growth in the current quarter is accelerating, but he cautioned that dealing with the economy's troubles would take time.

"We were in a very deep hole and it is going to take a long time to repair the damage done to confidence," he said.