PORTLAND — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is defending the government’s response to the financial crisis in a speech in Oregon.

Geithner spoke Wednesday to the Portland City Club, and he was asked about criticism from the tea party and Occupy Wall Street Movements directed at financial-sector bailouts. He says there were no other options at the time, and officials had to prevent the financial industry from dragging the economy into an even deeper collapse.

Geithner says the economy is gradually getting stronger but growth has been hampered by external factors including the financial crisis in Europe, rising oil prices and the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.

He says restoring public trust in the government and other institutions is “the political challenge of our time.”