CMKX - Bush Plans Statement Tomorrow to `Assure' Nation...

Bloomberg.com

Bush Plans Statement Tomorrow to `Assure' Nation (Update2)

By Demian McLean
Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush will address the nation tomorrow to tell Americans they should remain ``confident'' amid falling stock markets and a worldwide credit crisis, administration spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

The president wants to ``assure'' the country that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other administration officials are making ``every effort to stabilize our financial system,'' Perino said.

The statement, spurred by ``volatility'' in U.S. markets today, will be given at 10:25 a.m., Perino said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell below 9,000 for the first time since 2003 today, closing at 8,579.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell for the seventh day, losing 7.6 percent to 909.92. Higher borrowing costs and slower consumer spending have spurred concern that carmakers, insurers and energy companies will be the next victims of the credit crisis.

Previous statements by Bush and members of his administration haven't calmed markets since Congress passed a $700 billion bailout package intended to shore up banks and other financial institutions and stabilize markets.

Since Oct. 1, when the Senate gave final passage to the legislation, Bush has spoken publicly or issued statements about the rescue plan and the markets six times and the Dow has fallen 20.8 percent.

`Fear Level'

``Right now the fear level among investors is high and it's hard to see anything from him making much of a difference,'' said Frederic Dickson, who helps oversee $25 billion as chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

The two major party presidential candidates, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, also have sought to reassure the public as they urge government officials to continue working to solve the situation.

``Now is not the time for fear or panic, but for all of us to come together with resolve and determination that we can steer ourselves out of this crisis,'' Obama, an Illinois senator, said in a statement issued tonight.

``We have to get this economy turned around and we have to get it turned around immediately,'' McCain, a senator from Arizona, said at a campaign event today in Wisconsin.

Additional Steps

As markets continued to tumble and credit markets remained locked, the U.S. and other government have taken several additional steps.

The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and Sweden's Riksbank each cut their benchmark rates by half a percentage point.

The U.S. Treasury has begun selling an additional $40 billion of debt to meet demand for government securities in an effort to address shortages. Officials said today the Treasury is planning to buy stakes in a wide range of banks as another effort to unfreeze credit.

In the U.K., Prime Minister Gordon Brown is engineering a 50 billion pound ($87 billion) program that partly nationalizes at least eight British banks. Officials in Japan and Spain also announced steps to inject public money into banks and finance companies.

``Economic officials are aggressively taking every action,'' Perino said today. ``The Treasury is moving quickly to use new tools to improve liquidity, which is the root cause of this problem.''

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will meet with their counterparts from the Group of Seven major industrial nations tomorrow in Washington. Bush plans to meet with the finance ministers at the White House the following day, along with the heads of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

To contact the reporter on this story: Demian McLean in Washington at dmclean@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 9, 2008 19:58 EDT