The sight of a finance minister caught in reporters’ lights is more usually associated with an emerging market crisis. But Hank Paulson has a lot in common with emerging markets of late. It was Yale-educated former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo who once commented that markets overreact, so policymakers need to do so as well. Mr Paulson has taken a leaf out of that book.

He has taken no chances with the bail-out of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Other investors were not prepared to recapitalise them or buy sufficient amounts of their debt to bring mortgage rates down. So the government will instead. The former investment banker has in essence converted the Treasury into the US hedge fund of last resort (with the Federal Reserve as its prime broker). Oddly, Mr Paulson’s package has proved uncontroversial and been supported by both presidential candidates (although President George W. Bush has kept relatively quiet). And, paradoxically for the self-proclaimed home of democracy, it was enacted by unelected officials.