USAToday: G7 meeting Washington - Talk but no action - G7 agree to 'aggressive action plan' to fight crisis - no specific actions - by David J.Lynch
G7 meeting Washington "talk but no action" - G7 agree to 'aggressive action plan' to fight crisis - but no action - by David J.Lynch
The G7 group of nations agreed Friday on what U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called "an aggressive action plan" to combat a worsening global financial crisis. The five-point, single-page document gave evidence of a shared approach on the part of several of the world's major economic powers, but the meeting ended with no specific new anti-crisis measures."It doesn't sound like any fresh initiatives…The market was hoping for some sort of bolder, coordinated initiatives," said Marc Chandler, senior vice president at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.
In the days leading to today's meeting, hopes built in financial markets for specific measures that would address a crisis of confidence in the markets. Among them: provisions to guarantee lending between banks. But Paulson said demands for "precisely the same policies" from countries with different legal systems, banking industry structures and regulatory systems was "naive." Saturday, in an unusual step, President Bush is scheduled to meet with the finance ministers and release an early-morning statement.
Labels: meltdown, US Economy
