Top Democratic Lawmakers Urge Bush to Meet with G8 over Economy
Top Democratic lawmakers urged U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday to meet with G8 countries in order to find common solutions for common economic problems. Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi believe that the U.S. cannot deal with this problem by itself. Rather, a cooperated, international effort is required.
The two urged Bush to call an emergency meeting in a letter sent to the president today.
”The American people and the world are looking to the United States for leadership,” the letter urged.
“We are writing to support the call for an emergency meeting. … Doing so will send a strong signal that world leaders recognize the severity of the crisis and that they are committed to taking strong, concerted action to resolve it.”
The G8 is made up of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia.
The letter comes at a time when global stock markets continue to fall. The Japanese stock market was closed Friday with a loss of 9.62%, European markets followed later. The FTSE 100 (London) fell 8.85% of Friday, the German Dax 7.01% and the Dutch AEX 8.48%. The French CAC collapsed as well; it fell 7.73% lower.
The Dow Jones (New York) opened badly as well, and continued to fall. At time of writing it dropped another 390 points, or 4.55%, to 8,188 points. If this trend continues, the Dow could very well end up below 8,000 points on Friday, marking a record low in years.
