Hank Paulson, the former US Treasury secretary, faced hours of questioning about his decisions at the height of the financial crisis on Thursday, with lawmakers highlighting the collapse of Lehman Brothers and his relationship with Goldman Sachs.
A studiously polite Mr Paulson responded to an often scatter-gun interrogation by the House oversight committee, saying he lacked the powers to save Lehman and had sought ethics advice to guard against conflicts between his former job at Goldman and his position as Treasury secretary.
