Treasury Secretary Paulson Agrees Wall Street Was "Drunk"

Treasury Secretary--and former Goldman Sachs head--Henry Paulson said he agreed with President Bush's off-the-record remarks that Wall Street "got drunk." At a fund-raiser, Bush said of the financial sector, "It got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments." Yesterday on Meet the Press, Paulson broke down the problem, "In terms of Wall Street, there was too much leverage in the system and more leverage than was appropriate and more than people recognized, because the leverage came into the system in the form of highly complex, structured products, which were difficult to understand. So there was excess leverage, excess complexity." Oh, and Paulson doesn't want to serve in the next administration.