Paulson was in office from July 10, 2006 – January 20, 2009. That was 176 days in 2006. 365 days in 2007. 366 days in 2008 because it was leap year. And 20 days in January 2009.

That is a total of 927 days in office. With 70 trips to China that means he was there about every 13 days. He was commuting.

The trip from Washington, DC to Beijing, China non-stop is 13 hours and 53 minutes. That means former Secretary Paulson traveled 27 hours and 46 minutes round trip. That is one full day, 3 hours and 46 minutes.

So, the 13 days now gets whittled down to less than 12 days and then there is the time in China.  I never saw a picture during the time he was Secretary of the Treasury of him walking the Great Wall of China. 

Previous to Paulson taking office in 2006, the Treasury Secretary was John Snow. The financial community was going nuts. The banks knew they were in trouble and they knew Snow could not do anything to help them. His policies didn't address the new indulgences post deregulation under Bush, mortgage backed securities, derivatives and swaps. Wall Street bearly had a clue yet alone John Snow. 

I remember the headlines in 2006, there was a lot of pressure on Snow to resign and he did. When Bush chose Paulson to replace Snow the financial community was happy. It was strongly believed "Hank" Paulson was the man to turn everything around. 

Needless to say, Hank Paulson perhaps knew slightly more than Snow as to how to stop the markets from imploding, so he turned instead to China and building a new empire.

Lehman Brothers was the first to implode and declare bankruptcy in 2008 and everyone was laughing. This long standing investment bank was crumbling into chump change. They were full of hubris. The housing collapse started in 2007, but, the consumers of the USA Dream had no clue until the end of 2008. 

In reflection, when Paulson was confirmed into office in 2006 the reason the financial community was happy because they could count on Hank to find a way to bail them out. All I can say is that Jamie Dimon never needed the help, but, then he wasn't Secretary of the Treasury nor was he asked. I have to wonder if Dimon became Secretary of the Treasury what the bailout would look like if it occurred at all.