Bush Remarks on the Global Economy

We are a prosperous nation with immense resources and a wide range of tools at our disposal. We're using these tools aggressively.

The fundamental problem is this: As the housing market has declined, banks holding assets related to home mortgages have suffered serious losses.

BUSH: As a result of these losses, many banks lack the capital or the confidence in each other to make new loans. In turn, our system of credit is frozen, which is keeping American businesses from financing their daily transactions and creating uncertainty throughout our economy.

This uncertainty has led to anxiety among our people. And that is understandable, that anxiety can feed anxiety, and that can make it hard to see all that is being done to solve the problem.

The federal government has a comprehensive strategy and the tools necessary to address the challenges in our economy.

Fellow citizens, we can solve this crisis and we will. Here are the problems we face and the steps we're taking.