Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has sent a letter and formal application to the Treasury Department requesting $700 billion from the TARP Capital Purchase Program to fund the following tax cuts:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson opposes a plan by Democrats to use some of the $700 billion financial rescue package to bailout the auto industry and troubled homeowners.

Japan is offering to lend up to $100 billion to the International Monetary Fund to help nations hit hard by the global financial crisis.

The European Union says 15 nations that use the euro as their currency are officially in a recession, as world leaders gather in Washington to discuss the global financial crisis. The 27-nation EU as a whole avoided the same fate only by recording zero, rather than negative, growth in the second quarter.

It's been more than a year since the U.S. housing market collapsed, triggering a banking and credit crisis that has since spread across the world. The authorities have taken unprecedented measures to try and cushion the blow - including $4.6 trillion in bank rescues and fiscal spending, and coordinated interest-rate cuts from the world's major central banks.

It appears to be back to business as usual for Brussels and Moscow, even if the two sides continue to disagree about the fine print. A senior EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity this week in Brussels, was adamant that the EU-Russia summit did not equal a return to the sides' former relationship.

The global financial crisis has plunged China's auto industry to a seven-year nadir. The Chinese government has recently announced its $586 billion economic stimulus package for the country's sweeping investment in the coming two years to boost market demands and economic growth. Certainly, this big policy is expected to help reverse the sliding auto market in China.

Oleg Maslov
On 17 September the head of State Agency for Financial Control of the Republic of Kazakhstan E.Bahmutova informed that Kazakh banks have to pay out $12 billion of foreign credits by 1 September 2009. As of 1 September 2008 the banking sector of the republic was represented by 36 commercial banks.

Financial and stock markets around the world tumbled again on Monday as investors shed assets to raise cash to weather the impending global recession. Emerging-market stocks received yet another beat-down following a difficult week last week. News of a $16.5 billion IMF loan to the Ukraine and a planned "substantial financial package" for Hungary failed to assuage emerging market equity investors.

The global financial crisis could seriously delay the discovery and production of many new life-saving medicines, warns a major international conference today (Monday).

U.S. President George Bush is urging nations of the world to be patient with a global economic recovery and to maintain policies that keep the global financial markets open.

The economic crisis that has sent stock markets worldwide into freefall now looks almost certain to spark a major overhaul of the global financial system. To speak of freefall is no exaggeration. Both the U.S. and Japanese stock markets on October 15 suffered their biggest one-day losses since the crisis began.