WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke defended on Tuesday their stewardship of the $700 billion financial market rescue plan. In prepared remarks to the House Financial Services panel, Paulson said that there was "no playbook" for the Bush administration to follow and so strategy had to be adjusted. He said the financial markets would be worse off if Congress had not approved the package. Bernanke said he saw some improvements in credit markets, but said overall conditions remain "far from normal." Paulson defended his decision not to use funds from the package to aid homeowners. He said the best way to turn the housing market around was to "increase access to lower cost mortgage lending." He argued that the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was an important step in that direction.
