WORLD> World Financial Crisis
|
WORLD> World Financial Crisis
|
|
Related
Bush plans to host world powers at economic summit
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-19 09:00 CAMP DAVID, Md. – US President Bush, looking for answers to an economic emergency with just three months left in office, will host an international summit to discuss ways to fix the world financial system but warned on saturday against reforms that threaten capitalism. "We will work to strengthen and modernize our nations' financial systems so we can help ensure that this crisis doesn't happen again," Bush said at the Camp David presidential retreat.
Bush, meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, did not announce a date or site for the summit. But Sarkozy suggested it be held in the shadow of Wall Street before the end of November. "Insofar as the crisis began in New York, then the global solution must be found to this crisis in New York," Sarkozy said. Bush has backed the steps European nations have taken to fix the financial markets and is willing to listen to a range of ideas from both developed and developing nations, but he hasn't signed on to the more ambitious, broad-stroke reforms that some European leaders have in mind to avoid a repeat of the market crisis that rippled around the globe. Sarkozy has floated the idea of reforming rating agencies and even exploring the future of currency systems. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who engineered a British bank bailout that inspired US and European rescues, is proposing radical changes to the global capitalist system, including a cross-border mechanism to monitor the world's 30 biggest financial institutions. Nearing the end of his second term, any US work to reform the global financial system likely will fall to Bush's successor. It's unclear if the summit will be before or after the US presidential election on Nov. 4, or whether the candidates, their representatives or the winner would attend. Standing outside on a crisp autumn day at the helipad on the secluded retreat, all three leaders spoke soberly about what Bush called a "trying time for all our nations." "As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of this crisis, it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism -- a commitment to free markets, free enterprise, and free trade," Bush said. "We must resist the dangerous temptation of economic isolationism and continue the policies of open markets that have lifted standards of living and helped millions of people escape poverty around the world." |
