Geithner Vow: We'll Do Whatever It Takes To Avert Double-Dip Recession

Seldom do you hear a major Washington policymaker guarantee that something will or won't happen.

The obvious problem is that if you're wrong such vows can come back to haunt you as they're replayed continuously on the 24/7 cable news shows and commented on endlessly in the blogosphere.

So it was really extraordinary to hear Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in his interview Tuesday with All Things Considered host Michele Norris say unequivocally that there won't be a double-dip recession. He sounded like Joe Namath guaranteeing a Super Bowl championship.

Here's part of his conversation with Michele:

MICHELE: Pardon me for presenting you with all these doomsday scenarios but as you know many people are worried about a second wave of systemic crisis. either because of commercial real estate or the value of he dollar.

GEITHNER: We're not going to have any (garble) wave of the financial crisis. We're going to do what's necessary to prevent that. We cannot afford to let the country live again with the risk that we're going to have another series of events like we had last year.

That's not something that's acceptable. And we will prevent that. We will do what is necessary to prevent that. And that is completely within our capacity to prevent.

MICHELE: You're saying your confident it won't happen. What levers can you press or pull to make sure that does not happen?

GEITHNER: As people saw, when you have the will to act you have substantial ability to prevent that. And we'll do what's necessary to prevent that.

So no worries. You have it from Geithner that he's got the economy covered and will do whatever it takes to keep it from faltering. He didn't even leave himself any wriggle room by saying something like, of course, if Israel attacks Iran, all bets are off.

It's really a remarkable promise but there you have it, an early Christmas gift from the Treasury secretary.