WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. government pushed today to finish a plan to buy direct stakes in American banks as finance ministers from around the world struggled to find ways to stop the deepening financial crisis and shore up markets.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the U.S. government would buy shares of financial institutions if necessary to halt market turmoil that has wiped out trillions of dollars of wealth and threatens to throw the global economy into major recession.
“We're going to do it as we can do it in a proper way that will be effective. Trust me, we're not wasting time, we're working around the clock,” Paulson said late on Friday after a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich countries in Washington.
The G7 vowed to take all necessary steps to unfreeze credit markets and ensure banks can raise money, but offered no collective course of action to solve the 14-month-old debt crisis, which has worsened dramatically in recent weeks.
Analysts said the G7 statement was unlikely to allay the panic. |
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