To begin the session, director of the Rockefeller Center and economics professor Andrew Samwick, who moderated the discussion, asked Geithner about the goal of recent economic reforms. Reducing the U.S. budget deficit from 10 percent of American gross domestic product to below 3 percent is "the necessary thing [even though] it's not really the hardest thing and it's not really the most important thing," Geithner said in response to a question by Samwick.
"The most important thing is how you do it," Geithner said.
The objective of such economic reforms is to create a "modest" budget surplus, rather than a return to previous fiscal excesses, according to Geithner.
"Our basic objective is for our country to begin living within its means again," Geithner said.
Geithner also discussed the necessity of bipartisanship in initiating reform, emphasizing that the government "has passed the most difficult step" now that Democrats and Republicans agree on the need for change.
Samwick referenced former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers who said an economic stimulus should be "timely, targeted and temporary" and asked Geithner how the administration of President Barack Obama has followed these guidelines in dealing with the recession.
While the political response to the recession was "very quick," determining whether the response adequately addressed the target goals during the initial period of the crisis is a long and difficult process, according to Geithner.
"The task of governing is to figure out how to reconcile the ideal with what's feasible, given the political reality of the moment," Geithner said.
These "quick" reforms, however, damaged Obama's popularity, Geithner said.
"Because of what we did, we saved the financial system, but we lost the country doing it," he said.
The U.S. has seen "roughly average growth rates" of about 2.5 percent over the past two years, Geithner said. He cited high oil prices, the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, "terrible weather" that has affected construction efforts in the U.S., high defense spending and European debt crises as factors that have hindered recent economic growth.
Despite the many challenges that the global economy has faced, Geithner said he was calm and relatively optimistic about America's economic future.
"Nothing we face today is as difficult or as challenging as what we went through," Geithner said, referring to the American economy during the initial stage of crisis as "on the edge of a catastrophic collapse."
Samwick began the presentation with presentation with a few questions before opening the floor for questions by students and community members, who asked about American use of reserve crude oil, the American banking system and Geithner's personal methods to determine political fairness when formulating policy.
"We're going to have to fundamentally change large parts of the American tax system today," Geithner said in response to a student's question about tax reduction and expenditures.
College President Jim Yong Kim asked Geithner who said he only took one economics course during his time at the College how his liberal arts education prepared him for his current job.
"What you want in education is to have the privilege of working with great professors who teach you how to think, how to make choices, how to make decisions" Geithner said. "I was so fortunate to go to such a great place."
