This is the Geithner paradox. There is wide disagreement over what action Geithner must take, but nearly everyone demands he take action. Geithner is chided for being unclear about his plans, but as Federal Reserve’s veteran Vincent Reinhart put it in an interview, “he can’t be too clear.”

“The fundamental problem is that the American people are not willing to direct resources to financial intuitions to help markets,” said Reinhart, a former director of the Fed’s division of monetary affairs. “Because of that real anger, which A.I.G. has only intensified, Secretary Geithner has no cards to play.”…

“What do people want? A Nordic god figure?” asked Mark Blyth, a professor of comparative political economy at John Hopkins University. “Geithner is sitting there with a shit sandwich of unbelievable proportion. I don’t understand any of this Geithner bashing. So yeah the guy doesn’t come out and sound like Charlton Heston with two stone tablets but is that the level we are at?