There was something troubling about this week’s initiatives by Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, to address the country’s deteriorating housing market and the credit and liquidity problems that this is still causing for banks.

His speech in Washington on Tuesday, predicting that the subprime mortgage crisis would spread further, unnerved markets. Mr Paulson’s close-cropped hair, bald pate and intense manner, combined with his gloomy message, made him look like Dr Doom. His hobby is bird-watching, but I would not care to be the bird that he stares at through a pair of binoculars.