Eye On Feds' Bailout

CBS

Transcript

The nation's top financial official made the rounds this morning. He was pleading his case to the American people for the largest financial bailout since the US depression. We felt this was the best way to stabilize the situation, unclog the system so that it can work. He's seeking $700 billion for the US Treasury to buy up those subprime mortgages and other risky loans and securities that brought Wall Street to its knees. Some in Congress, where they're working with Treasury staff on a draft rescue bill, want to know why save the lenders and not the borrowers who can't pay off those loans. So, we have to do something more for homeowners. At first, Secretary Pollson sounded like he agreed. I think there should be a mortgage relief component to this. But on ABC's This Week, he seemed to say no to adding anything else to the bill. No foreclosure protections, no restrictions on compensation for executives. What I'm saying is we need this to be clean and quick and we need to get it in place. But critics of the plan would also like to add a sting in the tail, some sort of financial penalty and new oversight of those institutions that made all those bad loans. Capitalism without bankruptcy is like religion without hell. You're going to remove one of the incentives that makes people behave wisely. Wall Street likes the rescue plan just as it is. The Treasury proposal drove stocks from record lows back into the black on Friday. That recovery was based partly on the belief that the White House and Congress would come to a swift resolution to this crisis. Any lengthy delay could mean another market dip or dive and that could put pressure on both sides. Kelly Kimberly Doer reporting from Capitol Hill tonight. Kimberly, thanks so much.

World Watches U.S. Economy

CBS

Transcript

at the end of a wild week Global markets soared on the news of the US rescue plan Hong Kong up nearly 10% Paris up more than 6% trading in Moscow suspended again when stocks Rose 15% in 1 hour and in London the largest single bounce in footsie history up 8% is it all over not so fast of course it doesn't solve the problem that's just merely taking the poison out of the wound the wound is still there in London the week began with a shock collapse of Leman Brothers thousands of UK employees may lose their jobs and may not even get a last paycheck another 24 hours and a UK bank was revealed to be failing and about to be taken over by another the government sweeping aside anti-monopoly legislation our determination is to do everything to maintain the stability of the financial system the British government blamed American bankers and bad American debt people were prepared to take risks without responsibility and that's what I criticize people for irresponsible taking of of risks and situations where they thought that nothing could go wrong with the world's economy so intertwined there are calls for Global regulation for Global markets the economy in the United States of America or in Europe or the UK just simply cannot recover until such time as the banks are in a position to say they've emptied all the skeletons out of the cboard and fear that there is more to come the mood in the financial district absolutely hell just uncertainty everything uncertainty um no one knows if they've got a job the next day the Market's open again in just a few hours more bad news for Bankers here the British government is talking about investigating how they're paid whether they're really worth those big bonuses and multi-million dollar salaries that have helped fuel London's Global rise Kelly Sheila mcva reporting from London Sheila thanks so much