Bush targets 'anxiety' feeding global meltdown
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush tried Friday to break a cycle of "uncertainty and fear" he blamed for worsening the global financial meltdown, insisting US authorities can and will end the crisis. Offering no new remedies for the economic bloodbath, Bush warned the fearful US public and jittery global markets that "anxiety can feed anxiety, and that can make it hard to see all that is being done to solve the problem.
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The US president cited international cooperation among major economies and defended a US plan to pump up to 700 billion dollars into the tottering US financial sector while warning "it will take time to have its full impact."
"Fellow citizens: We can solve this crisis -- and we will," he promised in an eight-minute speech in the White House Rose Garden. "The American people can be confident in our economic future."
Bush noted he was to host rare crisis talks Saturday grouping finance ministers from fellow Group of Seven (G7) rich industrialized nations: Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as the IMF and World Bank.
And he highlighted US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's talks with a broader group that also includes major economies like Russia, China, and India, was the world gropes for a solution to what some have called the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"The world is sending an unmistakable signal: We're in this together, and we'll come through this together," said Bush, who discussed the crisis by telephone earlier with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The US president, whose terms ends January 20, placed an unusually strong emphasis in his remarks on psychological factors he warned were fueling an existing credit crisis sparked by US housing woes.
"Uncertainty has led to anxiety among our people. And that is understandable," he said of the turmoil, which casts a dark cloud over the November 4 elections to choose his successor.
"Here's what the American people need to know: That the United States government is acting; we will continue to act to resolve this crisis and restore stability to our markets," said Bush.
Interest rate cuts and billions of dollars' worth of cash injections by central banks failed to calm the mayhem, and US stocks opened with sharp losses Friday before limping into positive territory, only to plunge again on Bush's remarks.
But "the American people can be confident in our economic future. We know what the problems are. We have the tools to fix them. And we're working swiftly to do so," pledged Bush.
The US president came under renewed pressure, this time from leaders of the US Congress held by his Democratic foes, to convene a summit of the G7 countries plus Russia.
In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "The American people and the world are looking to the United States for leadership."
"We are writing to support the call for an emergency meeting of the G8 heads of state to address the continued instability in world financial markets and the freeze in global credit," they said in a statement.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy had already called for an emergency world leaders' economic summit, a step the White House said Bush "is open to" but will only seriously consider after the immediate crisis has passed.
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