Pete Peterson is puzzled. It is the day after Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, unveiled his $2,000bn financial rescue plan and markets and the press are panning the proposal for lack of detail.

“Why did [the administration] build up expectations the way they did, as though it was going to be a definitive plan?” he says. “If they had just said ‘it’s going to take us a week or two more, and for now we’re going to outline some principles’, you would have had a very different reaction.”