This morning, President Bush held a press conference to discuss his meeting with finance ministers from the G7 nations--Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Japan--trying to calm down Americans worried about the economy. He noted the actions that Treasury Henry Paulson and the Federal Reserve are already undertaking (and asked for patience). Bush also emphasized that the world is working together:

The G7 nations have pledged to take decisive action to support systemically important financial institutions and prevent their failure, provide robust protection for retail bank deposits, and ensure financial institutions are able to raise needed capital. We've agreed to implement strong measures to unfreeze credit, ensure access to liquidity, and help to restart the secondary markets for mortgages and other assets. We've all agreed that the actions we take should protect our taxpayers. And we agreed that we ought to work with other nations such as those that will be represented this afternoon in the G20 forum. more ›

Stock markets around the world fell today, hours after the U.S.'s Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 668 points to end yesterday under 8,600. The NY Times says the "Global Markets Dive in a Relentless Selloff"--and a German equity strategist explained, "We are fighting really dire fundamentals. It will require restoring trust and confidence before a sustained rebound will be possible.” USA Today also emphasizes the lack of confidence is what is driving the crisis. more ›

What bailout bill that was signed into law over the weekend? Stock markets around the world fell: Japan was down 4%, China 5%, the FTSE 5%. Iceland and Russia suspended trading after falling 14%. The futures index in NY is down, and it's believed the Dow will open down 200 points. more ›