9/225:08 News & Notes

RCM Comments: The US is being hung out to dry on the bailout, which is even more bullish for gold and bearish for the US$

Group of Seven partners cool to U.S.-style bailouts - Reuters.com
Reuters.com reports U.S. allies spurned entreaties from Washington that they enact large-scale financial bailouts, saying their banks were not exposed to the same level of reckless lending that put the American economy at risk of a deep recession. While some European central banks offered more funding for stressed financial markets and Japan said it would offer dollar liquidity, finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations, who consulted by phone, issued only guarded promises to cooperate in efforts to keep market turmoil in check... After Monday's conference call with G7 counterparts from Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, there was no sign any of the other countries planned the same tack. "We pledge to enhance international cooperation to address the ongoing challenges in the global economy and world markets and maintain heightened close cooperation between finance ministries, central banks and regulators," the G7 officials said in a statement. However, they showed no appetite for mimicking the U.S. proposal. "At the moment, I don't think Japan needs to launch a program similar to that of the United States," Japanese Vice Finance Minister Kazuyuki Sugimoto told reporters in Tokyo, echoing comments from France, Britain and Germany.