US President George W. Bush said on Monday he expects the economy to ride out a financial storm that is roiling markets, with the help of his administration and the Federal Reserve.
A day before the Fed was widely expected to unleash another interest rate cut to bolster stalling economic growth, Bush attempted to reassure investors that the government was maintaining a bulwark against a market meltdown.
"The Federal Reserve has moved quickly to bring order to the financial markets," Bush said in a statement after huddling with his top economic advisors, including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and chief economic aide Edward Lazear.
"We're in challenging times," Bush said, voicing support for the Fed's emergency moves to add liquidity and stability to the financial system.
Bush's remarks came after a series of extraordinary actions by the Fed to unlock a frozen credit system and rescue troubled investment bank Bear Stearns as it teetered on bankruptcy.
"Secretary Paulson ... is supportive of that action, as am I," Bush said.
Praising the Treasury chief, a former chief executive at Wall Street investment giant Goldman Sachs, Bush said: "You've shown the country and the world that the United States is on top of the situation."
Paulson, meanwhile, defended the government's decision to provide a US$30 billion line of credit to prevent Bear Stearns from going bankrupt, while he declined to speculate on possible intervention in the currency markets to prop up the dollar.
"Bear Stearns had a liquidity crisis. And so we felt it was very important that this be resolved as a way to minimize impact on our economy," Paulson said. "This was an easy decision."
He repeated his consistent statements that the US has a "strong-dollar policy."
"It's very much in our nation's interest. Our economy has ups and downs. The long-term fundamentals, and I'm very confident about this ... we have strong long-term fundamentals. That will be reflected in our currency markets," he said.
Meanwhile, more than three in four Americans think the US is in a recession according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll released yesterday.
Not since September 1992, two months before former president George Bush lost his re-election bid, have so many Americans said the economy was in such bad shape, USA Today reported.
Seventy-six percent of those polled said the economy is in recession, compared to 22 percent who said it is not, USA Today said. Asked if the US could slip into a depression lasting several years, 59 percent said it was likely and 79 percent said they were worried about it, the paper said.
The poll of 1,025 adults was completed on Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The poll results reflect a slide in confidence that economists say could make the US economy worse, the article said.
Also See: Fed expected to cut rates aggressively
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)