Bush begs voters to back $700bn rescue

During a national televised address, the US President said failure to act now could lead to millions of Americans losing their jobs and have reverberations around the globe. The plan to buy up to $700bn of bad mortgage loans in order to encourage banks to lend to each other again, was announced last week by Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson. However, the US Congress has been critical of the scheme, saying ordinary taxpayers should not have to bear the costs of Wall Street’s excesses. Bush is hoping to gather support for the plan, saying the cost of not acting now could be far more than...