John McCain already told us he knows how to fix da ecomonies. He's just going to make a bi-partisan group like the 9/11 Commission. And we all know how well that worked out!

Someone needs to ask McCain if the fundamentals of the economy are still strong even after this↓

US government rescues insurer AIG (Sept 16, 2008)

The US Federal Reserve has announced an $85 billion (£48 billion) rescue package for AIG, the country's biggest insurance company, to save it from bankruptcy.

The plan involves a loan in return for an 80% public stake in the company.

The rescue follows Monday's collapse of US investment giant Lehman Brothers, which caused share prices to plummet across the world's financial markets.

Meanwhile, Barclays said it had reached a deal to buy Lehman's US investment banking and capital markets businesses.

The rescue of AIG - which has a trillion dollars in assets and insures bank loans around the world - prompted a shares rally in Asia, with Japan's market up 2% in early trading.

The board of the Federal Reserve made the decision "with the full support of the Treasury Department", it said in a statement, adding that the secured loan included conditions designed to protect "the interests of the US government and taxpayers".

Emergency meeting

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson refused to bail out Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the US.

Correspondents say AIG's demise would have a far greater impact on the world's financial markets than Lehman's.

Many banks and investment funds in the US and around the world would lose their insurance cover at a time when defaults on payments are likely to rise.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the central bank, the Federal Reserve, met senior members of Congress late on Tuesday to brief them on the bailout.

The plan calls for the government to seize up to 80% of AIG and remove its management, similar to the way it took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

US President George W Bush welcomed the package, and the White House said the deal was made "in the interest of promoting stability in financial markets and limiting damage to the broader economy".

Market slump

Meanwhile, the Fed has left interest rates unchanged at 2%. The BBC's Matthew Price in New York said the bank had clearly decided an interest rate cut would not help to alleviate the short-term financial crisis.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones rallied on Tuesday, closing 141 points higher having on Monday suffered its worst day's trading since the September 2001 attacks on the US.

But leading indices across Europe and Asia ended lower, with banking shares being the worst hit. Shares in Britain's biggest savings group, HBOS, initially dropped 35% before closing 22% down.

Central banks around the world responded by carrying out emergency measures to keep markets liquid.

The Bank Of England and the Bank of Japan injected £20bn (25bn euros; $36bn) and 2.5 trillion yen ($24.1bn; £13bn) respectively into their money markets.

The extra funding came as the interest rates at which banks lend to each other rocketed - as they did at the start of the credit crunch.

^ McCain has expounded on his position. By "fundamentals" he really means "American workers".

Therefore, anyone who speaks ill of the economy is insulting American workers, and must hate America.

I feel much better now that he's explained that, though apparently all the business sections of every newspaper hate America.

Better burn their offices to the ground.

Point taken, but what an annoying commercial...if they're going to repeat a sample that many times, they might as well add a techno beat while they're at it.

So the Bush-led government continues to intervene in the free market, claiming stake in corporations and preventing them from closing... And Barack Obama is the socialist?