Nasdaq CEO calls on Washington to rediscover compromise

Greifeld said he came away feeling Geithner was pragmatic and data-driven. That is a good sign, he said.

He also said during the interview that he would be fine with wealthier Americans paying more in individual taxes as long as they were properly balanced with spending cuts.

I think to the extent that the Bush-era tax cuts lapse and we went back to the rates that were in the Clinton time ... if that were part of a balanced plan, I would be fine with that, he told Reuters. If those tax cuts expire, the wealthiest would see their rates spike to 39.6 percent from 35 percent.

Greifeld declined to offer his view on which federal spending programs should be cut, although he noted there was no one program big enough and the government should be looking at small steps it can take across the board.

More likely, you are going to see budget sanity be achieved by a thousand small steps as opposed to one or two large ones, he said.

He would have concerns, however, about extending such smaller cuts to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - the federal agency charged with regulating Nasdaq OMX and other stock exchanges.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget has projected

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