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 ›

Treasury Secretary (and former Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO) Henry Paulson is on Meet the Press right now (and other programs), but in the mean time, he told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that the White House will try to have foreign firms included in the $700 billion bailout. Paulson said, "We are talking very aggressively with other countries around the world. If a financial institution has business operations in the United States, hires people in the United States...they have the same impact on the American people as any other institution." Well, Senator Chuck Schumer is telling Congress to pass the bailout, saying it needs to be passed soon. Paulson just told MTP's Tom Brokaw this is a "humbling" experience. Mayor Bloomberg will be up next. more ›