mr president let us hope that the american proposals for purchases of toxic assets do work because if they do not the contagion will almost certainly spread over here
i would like assurance from mr jouyet and mr almunia that we really do have our defences in place
do we have our lenders of last resort ready to meet the very worst which might occur in such a circumstance
we are moving from a liquidity problem to a solvency problem
it is true that in due course we will have to review our regulatory defences but this cannot and should not be done precipitately in the heat of the crisis
we would risk overreacting imposing unnecessary wrongly directed over-draconian conditions which would only harm the prospects for investment in our economies and jobs for the future
the most vital thing which we must bring about immediately is the restoration of confidence
mr almunia you mentioned the word several times
let us see how we can set about it
i would urge that the leaders of the world's most important economies of america europe the middle and far east meet together within days and assure the world unequivocally that whatever is necessary to douse the flames will be provided unequivocally wherever those flames may erupt
only when the flames and embers are extinguished can we turn to post-mortems as to how this happened and what is needed to avoid it happening again
confidence is the vital base on which a vibrant financial system and a vibrant global economy rests
it is now up to the political leaders of the highest level a summit indeed of the free-market economies to come together no excuses no holding back no arguments to take full responsibility for restoring confidence
