by Laura Conaway

People are debating whether Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner delivered fluff or substance in yesterday's interview with Adam Davidson. Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the IMF and a Planet Money regular, heard this:

The bottom line is that the government will support the credit system a great deal and in many innovative ways, but Treasury will try really hard to avoid FDIC-type takeovers/reprivatizations of large banks. This is quite striking, and presumably the hope is that a big "no nationalization" rally in the price of banks' common equity will turn the tide more generally.