Former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who was also the former CEO of DC favored financial institutions Goldman Sachs, testified before congress about the severity of the crisis and the possibility of financial armageddon in 2008 had the bailouts not been passed:

Facing criticism on Capitol Hill, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Wednesday defended his decision to complete a $182 billion bailout of American International Group Inc., arguing that the unemployment rate would have risen easily to 25% without the bailout. “If the system had collapsed millions more in savings would have been lost,” said Paulson, who was Treasury Secretary at the time of the bailout, at a hearing. “Industrial companies of all size would not have been able to raise funding and they would not have been able to pay employees, this would have rippled through the economy.” Lawmakers grilled Paulson, arguing that government officials failed to obtain concessions for taxpayers.

We’re not sure whether or not Mr. Paulson has reviewed the latest from Shadowstats.com analyst John Williams, but the real unemployment rate is currently at 22%.

Perhaps these are, in fact, the statistics Mr. Paulson is referring to, in which case, from Mr. Paulson’s perspective, we could consider the unemployment rate to be “better than expected.”

If it weren’t for people like Mr. Paulson, we might actually be in some serious economic trouble.