WORLD> America
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WORLD> America
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White House scrambles to get rescue plan moving
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-13 20:58 WASHINGTON - With the world's financial markets on a stomach-churning ride, the Bush administration is scrambling to get a $700 billion rescue effort for the US banking system up and running, as Europe's central banks began Monday to take unified actions aimed at easing the credit crisis.
The Bush administration faced a daunting task as it moves to put together what will be one of the world's largest asset management firms while rethinking how the program should operate.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank jointly announced they would work together to provide unlimited short-term funds to make money available to ease the credit freeze. The Bank of Japan said it was considering a similar move. Three of the largest British banks said they planned to seek up to $63 billion from the government to bolster their balance sheets. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said during weekend meetings with global financial powers that his department was working around the clock to carry out the plan. His comments were meant to convince investors that the world's largest economy is moving quickly to get lending restarted and avert what could be a deep and painful global recession. Those dire concerns sent markets around the world reeling last week, giving the Dow Jones industrial average it worst week on record. Since peaking a year ago, the Dow is now down 40.3 percent. US stocks have lost $8.4 trillion in value over the past year. |
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