US PRESIDENT Barack Obama has dismissed this week’s plunge in the US stock market to its lowest level since 1996 as a “day-to-day gyration” similar to daily tracking polls during an election campaign.
Speaking in the White House following a meeting with British prime minister Gordon Brown, Mr Obama said some stocks were now priced so low that it could be a good time to buy.
“What I’m looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability for the United States and the entire world economy to regain its footing,” he said.
“And, you know, the stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day to day, and if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you’re probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong.”
Mr Brown said a Group of 20 economic summit on April 2nd would give the world’s leading industrialised nations an opportunity to address the economic crisis on a global level.
“We’ve had a global banking failure, and it’s happened in every part of the world. It’s almost like a power cut that went right across the financial system. And we have got to rebuild that financial system,” he said.
“So we’ve got to root out the problems that exist in other parts of the world as well; set principles with the banking system for the future; and make sure that the banks subscribe to lending agreements where they actually increase the lending that is available to citizens in every country.”
Mr Obama and Mr Brown appeared awkward during a brief joint appearance before a handful of British and American journalists following their meeting.
However, Mr Obama described their relationship as “terrific” and said they shared key values.
“We believe in the free market, we believe in a government that is not overbearing and allows entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive, but we also share a common belief that there have to be sufficient regulatory structures in place so that the market doesn’t spin out of control,” he said.
British media commentators suggested that Mr Brown had been snubbed after the White House cancelled a planned press conference with the two leaders. Mr Obama insisted, however, that the “special relationship” between Britain and the US remained strong.
The president, one of whose maternal ancestors emigrated to the US from Co Offaly, even suggested that his lineage was British.
“The special relationship between the United States and Great Britain is one that is not just important to me, it’s important to the American people,” he said.
“And it is sustained by a common language, a common culture; our legal system is directly inherited from the English system; our system of government reflects many of these same values. And by the way, that’s also where my mother’s side of my family came from.”
