[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 45 (Monday, November 17, 2008)]
[Pages 1416-1420]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
 Remarks to the Manhattan Institute in New York City

 November 13, 2008

     Thank you very much. Please be seated. Thank you. Larry, thank you 
for the introduction. Thank you for giving Laura and me a chance to come 
to this historic hall to talk about a big issue facing the world. And 
today I appreciate you giving me a chance to come and for me to outline 
the steps that America and our partners are taking and are going to take 
to overcome this financial crisis.
     And I thank the Manhattan Institute for all you have done. I 
appreciate the fact that I am here in a fabulous city to give this 
speech. People say, ``Are you confident about our future?'' And the 
answer is, absolutely. And it's easy to be confident when you're in a 
city like New York City. After all, there is an unbelievable spirit in 
this city. This is the city whose skyline has offered immigrants their 
first glimpse of freedom. This is the city where people rallied when 
that freedom came under attack. This is the city whose capital markets 
have attracted investments from around the world and financed the dreams 
of entrepreneurs all across America. This is the city that has been and 
will always be the financial capital of the world.
     And I am grateful to be in the presence of two men who served ably 
and nobly New York City, Mayor Koch and Mayor Giuliani. Thank you all 
for coming. Glad you're here. I thank the Manhattan Institute board of 
trustees and its chairman, Paul Singer, for doing good work, being a 
good policy center. And before I begin, I must say, I would hope that 
Ray Kelly would tell New York's finest how much I appreciate the 
incredible hospitality that we are always shown here in New York City. 
You're the head of a fabulous police force, and we thank you very much, 
sir.
     We live in a world in which our economies are interconnected. 
Prosperity and progress have reached farther than any time in our 
history. Unfortunately, as we have seen in recent months, financial 
turmoil anywhere in the world affects economies everywhere in the world. 
And so this weekend I'm going to host a summit on financial markets and 
the world economy with leaders from developed and developing nations 
that account for nearly 90 percent of the world economy. Leaders of the 
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and the 
Financial Stability Forum are going to be there as well. We'll have 
dinner at the White House tomorrow night, and we'll meet most of the day 
on Saturday.
     The leaders attending this weekend's meeting agree on a clear 
purpose: to address the current crisis and to lay the foundation for 
reforms that will help prevent a similar crisis in the future. We also 
agree that this undertaking is too large to be accomplished in a single 
session. The issues are too complex, the problem is too significant to 
try to solve or to come up with reasonable recommendations in just one 
meeting. So this summit will be the first of a series of meetings.
     It will focus on five key objectives: understanding the causes of 
the global crisis; reviewing the effectiveness of our responses thus 
far; developing principles for reforming our financial and regulatory 
systems; launching a specific action plan to implement those principles; 
and reaffirming our conviction that free market principles offer the 
surest path to lasting prosperity.
     First, we're working toward a common understanding of the causes 
behind the global crisis. Different countries will naturally bring 
different perspectives, but there are some points on which we can all 
agree.
     Over the past decade, the world experienced a period of strong 
economic growth.

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Nations accumulated huge amounts of savings and looked for safe places 
to invest them. Because of our attractive political, legal, and 
entrepreneurial climates, the United States and other developed nations 
received a large share of that money.
     The massive inflow of foreign capital, combined with low interest 
rates, produced a period of easy credit. And that easy credit especially 
affected the housing market. Flush with cash, many lenders issued 
mortgages, and many borrowers could not afford them. Financial 
institutions then purchased these loans, packaged them together, and 
converted them into complex securities designed to yield large returns. 
These securities were then purchased by investors and financial 
institutions in the United States and Europe and elsewhere, often with 
little analysis of their true underlying value.
     The financial crisis was ignited when the booming housing markets 
began to decline. As home values dropped, many borrowers defaulted on 
their mortgages, and institutions holding securities backed by those 
mortgages suffered serious losses. Because of outdated regulatory 
structures and poor risk management practices, many financial 
institutions in America and Europe were too highly leveraged. When 
capital ran short, many faced severe financial jeopardy. This led to 
high-profile failures of financial institutions in America and Europe, 
led to contractions and widespread anxiety, all of which contributed to 
sharp declines in the equity markets.
     These developments have placed a heavy burden on hard-working 
people around the world. Stock market drops have eroded the value of 
retirement accounts and pension funds. The tightening of credit has made 
it harder for families to borrow money for cars or home improvements or 
education of the children. Businesses have found it harder to get loans 
to expand their operations and create jobs. Many nations have suffered 
job losses and have serious concerns about the worsening economy. 
Developing nations have been hit hard as nervous investors have 
withdrawn their capital.
     We are faced with the prospect of a global meltdown. And so we've 
responded with bold measures. I'm a market-oriented guy, but not when 
I'm faced with the prospect of a global meltdown. And at Saturday's 
summit, we're going to review the effectiveness of our actions.
     Here in the United States, we have taken unprecedented steps to 
boost liquidity, recapitalize financial institutions, guarantee most new 
debt issued by insured banks, and prevent the disorderly collapse of 
large, interconnected enterprises. These were historic actions taken 
necessary to make--necessary so that the economy would not melt down and 
affect millions of our fellow citizens.
     In Europe, governments are also purchasing equity in banks and 
providing government guarantees for loans. In Asia, nations like China 
and Japan and South Korea have lowered interest rates and have launched 
significant economic stimulus plans. In the Middle East, nations like 
Kuwait and the UAE have guaranteed deposits and opened up new government 
lending to banks.
     In addition, nations around the world have taken unprecedented 
joint measures. Last month, a number of central banks carried out a 
coordinated interest rate cut. The Federal Reserve is extending needed 
liquidity to central banks around the world. The IMF and World Bank are 
working to ensure that developing nations can weather this crisis.
     This crisis did not develop overnight, and it's not going to be 
solved overnight. But our actions are having an impact. Credit markets 
are beginning to thaw. Businesses are gaining access to essential short-
term financing. A measure of stability is returning to financial systems 
here at home and around the world. It's going to require more time for 
these improvements to fully take hold, and there's going to be difficult 
days ahead. But the United States and our partner are taking the right 
steps to get through this crisis.
     In addition to addressing the current crisis, we will also need to 
make broader reforms to strengthen the global economy over the long 
term. This weekend, leaders will establish principles for adapting our 
financial systems to the realities of the 21st century marketplace. We 
will discuss specific actions we can take to implement these principles. 
We will direct our finance ministers to work with

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other experts and report back to us with detailed recommendations on 
further reasonable actions.
     One vital principle of reform is that our nations must make our 
financial markets more transparent. For example, we should consider 
improving accounting rules for securities, so that investors around the 
world can understand the true value of the assets they purchase.
     Secondly, we must ensure that markets, firms, and financial 
products are properly regulated. For example, credit default swaps--
financial products that insure against potential losses--should be 
processed through centralized clearinghouses instead of through 
unregulated, over-the-counter markets. By bringing greater stability to 
this large and important financial sector, we reduce the risk to our 
overall financial systems.
     Third, we must enhance the integrity of our financial markets. For 
example, authorities in every nation should take a fresh look at the 
rules governing market manipulation and fraud and ensure that investors 
are properly protected.
     Fourth, we must strengthen cooperation among the world's financial 
authorities. For example, leading nations should better coordinate 
national laws and regulations. We should also reform international 
financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, which are 
based largely on the economic order of 1944. To better reflect the 
realities of today's global economy, both the IMF and World Bank should 
modernize their governance structures. They should consider extending 
greater voter--voting power to dynamic developing nations, especially as 
they increase their contributions to these institutions. They should 
consider ways to streamline their executive boards and make them more 
representative.
     In addition, these important--to these management changes, we 
should move forward with other reforms to make the IMF and World Bank 
more transparent, accountable, and effective. For example, the IMF 
should agree to work more closely with member countries to ensure that 
their exchange rate policies are market-oriented and fair. And the World 
Bank should ensure its development programs reflect the priorities of 
the people they are designed to serve and focus on measurable results.
     All these steps require decisive actions from governments around 
the world. At the same time, we must recognize that government 
intervention is not a cure-all. For example, some blame the crisis on 
insufficient regulation of the American mortgage market. But many 
European countries had much more extensive regulations and still 
experienced problems almost identical to our own.
     History has shown that the greater threat to economic prosperity is 
not too little government involvement in the market, it is too much 
government involvement in the market. We saw this in the case of Fannie 
Mae and Freddie Mac. Because these firms were chartered by the United 
States Congress, many believed they were backed by the full faith and 
credit of the United States Government. Investors put huge amounts of 
money into Fannie and Freddie, which they used to build up irresponsibly 
large portfolios of mortgage-backed securities. And when the housing 
market declined, these securities, of course, plummeted in value. It 
took a taxpayer-funded rescue to keep Fannie and Freddie from collapsing 
in a way that would have devastated the global financial system. And 
there is a clear lesson: Our aim should not be more government, it 
should be smarter government.
     All this leads to the most important principle that should guide 
our work. While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the long-
term solution to today's problems is sustained economic growth. And the 
surest path to that growth is free markets and free people.
     This is a decisive moment for the global economy. In the wake of 
the financial crisis, voices from the left and right are equating the 
free enterprise system with greed and exploitation and failure. It's 
true this crisis includes failures by lenders and borrowers and by 
financial firms and by governments and independent regulators. But the 
crisis was not a failure of the free market system. And the answer is 
not to try to reinvent that system. It is to fix the problems we face, 
make the reforms we need, and move forward with the free market 
principles that

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have delivered prosperity and hope to people all across the globe.
     Like any other system designed by men, capitalism is not perfect. 
It can be subject to excesses and abuse. But it is by far the most 
efficient and just way of structuring an economy. At its most basic 
level, capitalism offers people the freedom to choose where they work 
and what they do, the opportunity to buy or sell products they want, and 
the dignity that comes with profiting from their talent and hard work. 
The free market system provides the incentives that lead to prosperity: 
the incentive to work, to innovate, to save, to invest wisely, and to 
create jobs for others. And as millions of people pursue these 
incentives together, whole societies benefit.
     Free market capitalism is far more than economic theory. It is the 
engine of social mobility, the highway to the American Dream. It's what 
makes it possible for a husband and wife to start their own business or 
a new immigrant to open a restaurant or a single mom to go back to 
college and to build a better career. It is what allowed entrepreneurs 
in Silicon Valley to change the way the world sells products and 
searches for information. It's what transformed America from a rugged 
frontier to the greatest economic power in history, a nation that gave 
the world the steamboat and the airplane, the computer and the CAT scan, 
the Internet and the iPod.
     Ultimately, the best evidence for free market capitalism is its 
performance compared to other economic systems. Free markets allowed 
Japan, an island with few natural resources, to recover from war and 
grow into the world's second largest economy. Free markets allowed South 
Korea to make itself into one of the most technologically advanced 
societies in the world. Free markets turned small areas like Singapore 
and Hong Kong and Taiwan into global economic players. Today, the 
success of the world's largest economies comes from their embrace of 
free markets.
     Meanwhile, nations that have pursued other models have experienced 
devastating results. Soviet communism starved millions, bankrupted an 
empire, and collapsed as decisively as the Berlin Wall. Cuba, once known 
for its vast fields of cane, is now forced to ration sugar. And while 
Iran sits atop giant oil reserves, its people cannot put enough gasoline 
in its--in their cars.

     The record is unmistakable. If you seek economic growth, if you 
seek opportunity, if you seek social justice and human dignity, the free 
market system is the way to go. And it would be a terrible mistake to 
allow a few months of crisis to undermine 60 years of success.

     Just as important as maintaining free markets within countries is 
maintaining the free movement of goods and services between countries. 
When nations open up their markets to trade and investment, their 
businesses and farmers and workers find new buyers for their products. 
Consumers benefit from more choices and better prices. Entrepreneurs can 
get their ideas off the ground with funding from anywhere in the world. 
Thanks in large part to open markets, the volume of global trade today 
is nearly 30 times greater than it was six decades ago, and some of the 
most dramatic gains have come in the developing world.

     As President, I have seen the transformative power of trade up 
close. I've been to a Caterpillar factory in East Peoria, Illinois, 
where thousands of good-paying American jobs are supported by exports. 
I've walked the grounds of a trade fair in Ghana, where I met women who 
support their families by exporting handmade dresses and jewelry. I've 
spoken with a farmer in Guatemala who decided to grow high-value crops 
he could sell overseas and helped create more than 1,000 jobs.

     Stories like these show why it is so important to keep markets open 
to trade and investment. This openness is especially urgent during times 
of economic strain. Shortly after the stock market crash in 1929, 
Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, a protectionist measure 
designed to wall off America's economy from global competition. The 
result was not economic security; it was economic ruin. And leaders 
around the world must keep this example in mind and reject the 
temptation of protectionism.

[[Page 1420]]

     There are clear-cut ways for nations to demonstrate the commitment 
to open markets. The United States Congress has an immediate opportunity 
by approving free trade agreements with Colombia, Peru [Panama],* and 
South Korea. America and other wealthy nations must also ensure this 
crisis does not become an excuse to reverse our engagement with the 
developing world. And developing nations should continue policies that 
foster enterprise and investment. As well, all nations should pledge to 
conclude a framework this year that leads to a successful Doha 
agreement.
    * White House correction.
     We're facing this challenge together, and we're going to get 
through it together. The United States is determined to show the way 
back to economic growth and prosperity. I know some may question whether 
America's leadership in the global economy will continue. The world can 
be confident that it will, because our markets are flexible, and we can 
rebound from setbacks. We saw that resilience in the 1940s, when America 
pulled itself out of Depression, marshaled a powerful army, and helped 
save the world from tyranny. We saw that resilience in the 1980s, when 
Americans overcame gas lines, turned stagflation into strong economic 
growth, and won the cold war. We saw that resilience after September the 
11th, 2001, when our Nation recovered from a brutal attack, revitalized 
our shaken economy, and rallied the forces of freedom in the great 
ideological struggle of the 21st century.
     The world will see the resilience of America once again. We will 
work with our partners to correct the problems in the global financial 
system. We will rebuild our economic strength, and we will continue to 
lead the world toward prosperity and peace.
     Thanks for coming, and God bless.

  Note:  The President spoke at 1:58 p.m. at the Federal Hall National 
Memorial. In his remarks, he referred to Lawrence J. Mone, president, 
Manhattan Institute; former Mayors Edward I. Koch and Rudolph W. 
Giuliani of New York City; and Raymond W. Kelly, commissioner, New York 
City Police Department. The Office of the Press Secretary also released 
a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.