Oct 12, 2008 8:36 pm US/Eastern
Bush, Foreign Leaders Discuss Financial Remedy
Susan Roberts, CBS 2
(CBS)
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President Bush speaks during a statement with G7 finance ministers and heads of international financial institutions as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (L) watches Oct. 11, 2008, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
A global push to turn around the economic crisis is being made this weekend.
High-level meetings took place Sunday in Washington and Paris, where world leaders hope that by working together, they can bring back confidence in the financial markets.
It could be said the group photo was just as important as what they discussed.
Leaders of the 15 countries that use the euro met in Paris, while members of the World Bank met in Washington in a show of solidarity designed to inspire trust.
"The decisions we make in the next few days are decisions that will affect us for many years ahead," UK Prime Minister Gorden Brown said.. "The eyes of the world are looking to their governments to help restore confidence in the financial markets."
The Euro Group has agreed to guarantee bank refinancing through the end of the year to ease the credit crunch. World Bank members agreed Sunday that aid must continue to flow where high food and fuel prices are hitting the very poor.
"100 million people have already been driven into poverty this year and that number will grow," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said.
In contrast, financial leaders of the largest, richest economies met with President Bush at the White House Saturday. They agreed that the world financial crisis is too big for the private sector to fix by itself, but did not decide on any new, coordinated policies.
Most US lawmakers support a plan by the Bush administration that would use part of the $700 billion dollar bailout to have government take ownership stakes in banks.
Top democrats are also proposing a $150 billion measure that would extend jobless benefits, provide more money for food stamps and finance infrastructure construction projects.
"And we shouldn't have let ourselves get into this position, but we did and now we've got to figure out how to regulate our way out of it," Former Secretary of State James Baker said. "I hate to say that but it's what we have to do."
And we have to do it fast. Fearful markets overseas are already open for business.
Democrats plan to consider that $150 billion proposal to boost the economy after Election Day.
Congressman Barney Frank says the idea is to give the middle class the same kind of relief the government is trying to give the financial sector.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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