Goodbye US Sovereignty!

Laura

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Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World's Markets (Update1) 

By Steve Scherer

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said
political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world's
financial markets while they ``rewrite the rules of international
finance.''

``The idea of suspending the markets for the time it
takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,'' Berlusconi said today
after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial
crisis ``can't just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but
global.''

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much 8.1
percent in early trading and pared most of those losses after
Berlusconi's remarks. The Dow was down 0.5 percent to 8540.52 at 10:10
in New York.

Group
of Seven finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in
Washington today, and will stay in town for the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank meetings this weekend. European Union leaders may
gather in Paris on Oct. 12, three days before a scheduled summit in
Brussels, Berlusconi said today, while Group of Eight leaders may hold
a meeting on the crisis ``in coming days,'' he said.

Berlusconi
didn't give any details about what kind of rules leaders were looking
to change, except to say that leaders are ``talking about a newBretton Woods.''

The
Bretton Woods Agreements were adopted to rebuild the international
economic system after World War II in a hotel in Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire. The aim of the agreements was to establish a monetary
management system, initially by pegging currencies to gold. The IMF was
set up later to help manage the international financial system.

To contact the reporter on this story: Steve Scherer in Rome atscherer@bloomberg.net