"Although this crisis in some ways started in the United States, it is a global crisis. We bear a substantial share of the responsibility for what has happened, but factors that made the crisis so acute and so difficult to contain lie in a broader set of global forces that built up in the years before the start of our current troubles"
About this Quote
The subtext lives in the contrast between agency and atmosphere. “We bear responsibility” implies actors, decisions, oversight failures. “Global forces that built up” shifts causality toward abstractions - capital flows, savings gluts, deregulation across borders, the hunt for yield - forces that sound inevitable, even impersonal. That move matters politically. If the crisis is a domestic sin, the remedy is punishment: prosecutions, breakups, a nationalist backlash. If it’s a global system shock, the remedy becomes coordination: central bank swaps, multinational bailouts, technocratic triage.
Context makes the calibration legible. Speaking as a senior U.S. economic official in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse, Geithner is defending aggressive stabilization while preempting simplistic narratives. The line “so difficult to contain” is the quiet brief for extraordinary interventions: we didn’t merely choose to act; we were trapped inside an interconnected machine. It’s not exculpation exactly - it’s a bid to turn outrage into permission for pragmatic, globally minded governance.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Geithner, Timothy. (2026, January 16). Although this crisis in some ways started in the United States, it is a global crisis. We bear a substantial share of the responsibility for what has happened, but factors that made the crisis so acute and so difficult to contain lie in a broader set of global forces that built up in the years before the start of our current troubles. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/although-this-crisis-in-some-ways-started-in-the-131102/
Chicago Style
Geithner, Timothy. "Although this crisis in some ways started in the United States, it is a global crisis. We bear a substantial share of the responsibility for what has happened, but factors that made the crisis so acute and so difficult to contain lie in a broader set of global forces that built up in the years before the start of our current troubles." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/although-this-crisis-in-some-ways-started-in-the-131102/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Although this crisis in some ways started in the United States, it is a global crisis. We bear a substantial share of the responsibility for what has happened, but factors that made the crisis so acute and so difficult to contain lie in a broader set of global forces that built up in the years before the start of our current troubles." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/although-this-crisis-in-some-ways-started-in-the-131102/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
