US Department of Treasury

Some jobs take time to complete.  Implementing a global bailout program to save the US and world financial markets happens to be one of them.  The problem is that our current Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson has stated in no uncertain terms that he will be leaving office as soon as the next President takes office – on January 19, 2009.

Henry ‘Hank’ Paulson is one of the most visible Treasury Secretaries in recent history, and one that seemingly is bringing good judgment and adult supervision to the financial management of the country.  In these turbulent times, more of this type of leadership is required, and if today’s rhetoric about non-partisan support for such a bailout is legitimate, then John McCain and Barack Obama should jointly negotiate with Paulson to keep him on for long enough to see whatever plan he comes up with, well into implementation.

To be fair, going from Chairman of Goldman Sachs to US Treasury Secretary is probably quite a pay-cut, but our next president will need to be creative in building a successful cabinet with experience in both the private and public sectors to succeed.

Consumers and investors watching the market ups-and-downs need to think long-term, and remember that a crash this week, won’t be fixed next week.  Major market shifts can take years (sometimes 10 or more) to reach steady-state.