"The plausible outcomes range from the gradual and benign to the more precipitous and damaging"
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Geithner’s sentence is the kind of calm that arrives wearing a suit and carrying bad news. “Plausible outcomes” is bureaucratic anesthesia: it frames looming risk as a menu of reasonable possibilities, not a panic button. The wording signals competence and restraint, the central-bank virtue. Yet it also performs a subtle act of narrative control. By defining the range as “gradual and benign” on one end and “precipitous and damaging” on the other, he makes the worst-case scenario sound technical rather than terrifying, and the best-case scenario sound plausible enough to keep markets and lawmakers from bolting.
The real intent sits in the adjectives. “Gradual” and “benign” suggest manageability, time to act, policy levers that still work. “Precipitous” and “damaging” implies a sudden loss of confidence - the nightmare variable in finance and governance - without naming the triggers (bank runs, liquidity freezes, contagion). That omission is strategic. Specificity can become accelerant; vagueness buys room for intervention.
Contextually, this is crisis-era language from a public servant trained to speak to multiple audiences at once: investors listening for reassurance, legislators listening for justification, the public listening for signs of control. It’s a balancing act between candor and containment. Geithner isn’t trying to sound dramatic; he’s trying to make urgency legible without making fear contagious. The subtext: act now, quietly, because the “precipitous” outcome doesn’t announce itself until it’s already underway.
The real intent sits in the adjectives. “Gradual” and “benign” suggest manageability, time to act, policy levers that still work. “Precipitous” and “damaging” implies a sudden loss of confidence - the nightmare variable in finance and governance - without naming the triggers (bank runs, liquidity freezes, contagion). That omission is strategic. Specificity can become accelerant; vagueness buys room for intervention.
Contextually, this is crisis-era language from a public servant trained to speak to multiple audiences at once: investors listening for reassurance, legislators listening for justification, the public listening for signs of control. It’s a balancing act between candor and containment. Geithner isn’t trying to sound dramatic; he’s trying to make urgency legible without making fear contagious. The subtext: act now, quietly, because the “precipitous” outcome doesn’t announce itself until it’s already underway.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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