Geithner Says Free Market Will Not Solve Current Economic ProblemsWashington (AP) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended his approach to fixing the country's economic mess Sunday, saying "the market will not solve this" while disclosing a bailout fund for battered banks has $135 billion left and might need more.
Geithner used his first Sunday talk show appearances to promote President Barack Obama's massive government spending plan to ease credit, help borrowers and inject billions of dollars into the financial sector. Long kept behind the scenes, the treasury secretary has emerged as the administration's champion of a plan that fueled an uptick in Wall Street markets.
"We came through a period where people borrowed too much and we let our financial system take on much too much risk," Geithner said. "And the consequences of those choices, made over years, were a huge boom. And that boom, the air is now coming out of that and that's causing enormous damage."
Obama and his administration last week announced a program to help banks free themselves of so-called "toxic assets." These investments have tied up capital and kept them from resuming more normal lending to consumers and businesses.
MORE 
I knew this guy looked familiar:
