Global leaders race the clock

IMF confident governments will act in time to avert meltdown
By Rex Nutting & Greg Robb, MarketWatch
Last update: 5:50 p.m. EDT Oct. 11, 2008 Comments: 1578

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Policymakers from around the globe are united in their resolve to avert a global financial meltdown, the International Monetary Fund said Saturday.
Although the talks in Washington this weekend haven't come up with the specific solutions needed for each nation, the whole world is committed to do whatever it takes to unfreeze credit markets, said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director.
"No one is going to let an important financial institution fail," Strauss-Kahn said. Earlier in the day, he opened up the discussions by warning that worries about the insolvency of major banks had pushed "the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown."
The IMF specifically endorsed the plan of action put forth Friday by the Group of Seven nations, which calls for public funds to recapitalize banks. Critics said the G7 plan was woefully short on the specifics needed to calm jittery investors.
Although different countries may use different methods, they are all resolved to act as needed, said Youssef Boutros-Ghali, head of the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee. "No tool will be spared."
Even as urgent talks continued in Washington, authorities in the United Kingdom were preparing to unveil the specifics of their plan to recapitalize its banking sector, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. See full story.
Many observers say the officials are working against the clock, with global markets set to open on Monday, with or without a credible plan from the world's governments.
The plan put forth by the Group of Seven on Friday was seen by many as only a first step.
President Bush urged global finance leaders on Saturday to work together quickly on a "serious global response" to "the serious global crisis" in credit markets.
Top policymakers from the Group of 20 largest economies were meeting later Saturday to work on a coordinated response to calm markets that have been shaken by massive losses and bankruptcies.
"We're in this together. We will come through this together," Bush said Saturday after meeting with finance leaders of the G7 industrialized nations at the White House.
Leaders of the 15 euro-zone countries will meet in Paris on Sunday to discuss a rescue plan based on the British model, which includes massive recapitalization and an explicit guarantee of all interbank credits, as urged by the IMF, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and many outside experts.
On Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said his staff was working as quickly as they could to implement a plan to recapitalize important U.S. financial institutions. Paulson was able to provide few details, however.
The G7 response was a five-part plan similarly lacking in details, although it did provide a common framework, calling for recapitalizing banks with public and private funds, insuring depositors and unfreezing credit markets. Pointedly, however, the G7 plan did not include one of the two major suggestions made by Brown: government guarantees of all bank liabilities.
The G7 said that "urgent and exceptional action" is needed to stabilize financial markets.
The G7 vowed to use all available tools to support systemically important financial institutions and prevent them from failing.
At first blush, some analysts were not too impressed.
Vincent Reinhart, a former top staffer at the Federal Reserve Board, said markets had no interest in pledges but wanted to know exactly what the G7 would do before trading resumes Monday.
"I think the finance ministers just failed a test, or at best got a C minus," wrote Paul Krugman, a Princeton University economics professor and New York Times columnist.
But Sherry Cooper, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said she thought the principles expressed by the G7 would reassure markets.
Ahead of the meeting, Ken Rogoff, a Harvard University professor and former chief economist at the IMF, told MarketWatch that there needed to be an "overwhelming" G7 statement.
"I think the worst thing to do would be to come out with a very tepid response," he said. "It would be the end of the G7."
On Saturday, Rogoff told Reuters that "markets are going to be very disappointed" by the G7 statement.
The Group of Seven includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Canada. The European Union is also a participant. The G20 includes those eight and adds China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey. Together, the G20 account for about 90% of global gross domestic product.
The weekend meetings came as global stock markets endured another volatile day on Friday, capping one of the worst weeks ever. Investors around the world scrambled to move their funds into the safest and most liquid investments, such as cash and government bonds, fearing that the seizing up of credit markets could lead to a major recession and the failure of large corporations.
Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.
Greg Robb is a senior reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.