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 G7 Pileup - Air Force One Press Gaggle by Dana Perino 10/10/08 — Friday, October 10, 2008 —  Q What is -- what's the President hoping to achieve with the ministers' meeting tomorrow, with the G7 meeting?MS. PERINO: Well, we have been keeping you regularly updated on all the calls and coordination amongst the G7 countries and beyond, because as we said this morning, the President spoke to Prime Minister Rudd, I expect he spoke to President Lula earlier this week, amongst others. The G7 has been working together on a variety of things: sharing information, finding common areas where they can work together on instituting rescues that will address their individual nation's needs, as well as what we need to do as a whole, since we are all so interconnected. So today's meeting at the Treasury Department will allow them to meet face to face, maybe dot some "I's," cross some "T's," and then tomorrow morning the President will have a chance to meet with them. I'm going to let that meeting take place, but I will tell you that the goal of the meeting overall is to continue the good communication and cooperative spirit of trying to find common solutions, while respecting the fact that each nation has individual problems and challenges and needs and ways to address them. Q Dana, has anyone at the White House spoken to Berlusconi or any of his aides about his proposal to close global markets? MS. PERINO: I don't know if you saw an update, but it was retracted. Q Did you guys talk to him about retracting -- MS. PERINO: No, I don't think so. I think that it all happened so fast it was -- Q It wasn't like the White House asked him to retract that or anything like that? MS. PERINO: Not that I'm aware of. I just saw a news report as it came across. I don't know of any of us -- I wasn't involved at all. Q What about the idea of guaranteeing some of the bad debt at the banks? MS. PERINO: This is one of the ideas that Gordon Brown has put forward. What we have said is that with any proposal that's put forward by one of our global partners, that we'll take a look at it and we will review it, but beyond that I don't have any comment on it. Q What about insuring all deposits temporarily at U.S. banks? MS. PERINO: All of those things are questions that the policymakers can take up and think about, discuss. And then once we have -- if we have a decision about moving forward on any of those issues, it will either come out of the Treasury Department or we'll keep you updated. Air Force One | Dana Perino | Economy | G7 | President Bush | Press Gaggle | Treasury Department | Wall Street | White House Press Corps Labels: Air Force One, Dana Perino, Economy, G7, President Bush, Press Gaggle, Treasury Department, Wall Street, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 5:13:00 PM  Wow, could've had a G8 - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 10/7/08 — Tuesday, October 07, 2008 —  MS. PERINO: Wendell. Q As we've dealt with this crisis over the past month and a half or so, the talks -- the international talks have involved the G7, not the G8. Is Moscow, in this regard, paying the price for its overreaction to the Georgia incursion? MS. PERINO: I've not heard that come up, because -- and I don't know all the details; I'd refer you to Treasury about the G7 and the makeup. But usually when they're talking the finance ministers meeting, those have been held at the G7 level, though I think there is some observance or participation at the Russian level, and that will be true this weekend, as well. Q That will be true this weekend as -- because Russia's stock market has lost about half its value this year. They are also suffering in this thing. Do we feel we need them, given they're a huge energy provider for Europe? MS. PERINO: Well, I think that you should go back and -- well, you have to ask Europe that. And I think that obviously energy is an issue. They've been working to try to diversify and develop more supply and different types of supply there in their own hemisphere. But the Russian stock market -- and I'm not an expert in this -- but you could go back -- they didn't just lose value over the past two weeks. They've been losing value since about -- since May -- Q All year. MS. PERINO: -- or maybe all year, but I know that a precipitous drop since May. Again, I don't comment on the daily market movements here, and I can't do it in terms of the Russian ones. But clearly, if you look back in August, if you want to try to make a parallel, when we were dealing with the situation when Russia invaded Georgia, yes, I think that they did -- the world did react negatively to that. Q But I just want to make sure that the -- in the current financial situation, I want to -- the question remains whether Russia is being punished, in effect. MS. PERINO: As I said, I'll have you check with Treasury for the exact list of who all will be here. But it's usually -- when the G7 meets, it's usually just the finance ministers. And that's been the way it's been -- I think we inherited that policy for a while. But I think that the Russian -- I can't remember -- Q So the G8 meets on political matters, the G7 on financial matters? MS. PERINO: I believe so. I don't want to say for sure. But the G7 -- I'm sorry, Treasury will have the list today. But I do think that they send an observer. Dana Perino | Economy | G7 | G8 | Press Briefing | Treasury Department | Wendell Goler | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Economy, G7, G8, Press Briefing, Russia, Treasury Department, Wendell Goler, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 3:48:00 PM
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