too interconnected to fail. given the current exceptional pressures and the global economy financial system, the damage caused by default by bear stearns could have been severe and extremely difficult to contain. the fed knows this isn t just one firm. when one tall building on wall street falls, it s probably going to land on another one, which could land on another one. and it was that institutional risk, the idea that you might have an uncontrollable fire on wall street that primarily concerned bernanke and the policy makers in washington. i think the big question on a lot of people s minds, are there other banks in a situation similar to bear stearns right now. is this just the beginning? well, our our financial institutions, our banks and investment banks are very strong, and i m convinced that they re going to come out of this situation very strong. our markets are resilient. they re flexible. i m quite confident we re going to work our way through this situation.
wasn t that bear stearns was too big to fail, it was too interconnected to fail. given the global economy and financial system, the damage caused by bear stearns could have been severe and difficult to contain. the fed knows this isn t just one firm. when one fall building on wall street falls, it is likely to land on another one, and another one. it s the institutional risk, the idea that you have an uncontrollable fire on wall street, that concerned bernanke and the policymakers in washington. the big question is are there other banks in a situation similar to bear stearns right now? is this just the beginning? our banks are very strong. and i m convinced they re going to come out of this situation very strong. our markets are resilient, they re flexible. i m quite confident we re going to work our way through this