President Bush today confirmed a $250 billion plan for the US Government to buy shares in America's largest banks, insisting that the move was "not intended to take over the free market but to preseve it". Following a model first adopted in Britain last week and copied across the rest of Europe, the partial nationalisation will be accompanied by a series of measures designed to break the credit logjam paralysing lenders. The $250 billion (£142 billion) will come from a $700 billion bailout package already agreed by Congress. "This is an essential short-term measure to ensure the viability of America's banking system," Mr Bush said in a statement from the lawn of the White House. The initial plan for the bailout, negotiated by Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, was for the money to be used to purchase "toxic" sub-prime assets from lenders to allow them to clear up their balance sheets. It quickly became apparent, however, that that might not be enough to end the credit crunch.
President Bush today confirmed a $250 billion plan for the US Government to buy shares in America's largest banks, insisting that the move was "not intended to take over the free market but to preseve it".
Following a model first adopted in Britain last week and copied across the rest of Europe, the partial nationalisation will be accompanied by a series of measures designed to break the credit logjam paralysing lenders.
The $250 billion (£142 billion) will come from a $700 billion bailout package already agreed by Congress. "This is an essential short-term measure to ensure the viability of America's banking system," Mr Bush said in a statement from the lawn of the White House.
The initial plan for the bailout, negotiated by Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, was for the money to be used to purchase "toxic" sub-prime assets from lenders to allow them to clear up their balance sheets. It quickly became apparent, however, that that might not be enough to end the credit crunch.
