Henry Paulson: Wall Street Went Wild

Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson: "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. We have, of course, one priority getting through this period with as little damage, as little negative impact as possible on the economy. But the second part is to take steps to reduce the likelihood of these sorts of things happening in the future."