Bush assures world Congress will act quickly

President Bush told world leaders at the United Nations on Tuesday that he is taking bold steps to prevent economic meltdown in the U.S., and that he is working with Congress to enact his $700 billion plan quickly.

“I can assure you that my administration and our Congress are working together to quickly pass legislation,” Mr. Bush said. “I’m confident we will act in the urgent time frame required.”

In his final address as president to the U.N. general assembly, Mr. Bush told the delegates that he is aware that an economic collapse in the U.S. would ripple around the world.

“In recent weeks we have taken bold steps to prevent a severe disruption of the U.S. economy, which would have a devastating effect on other economies around the world,” he said.

Mr. Bush’s speech, however, touched only briefly on the economic crisis,

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In speeches bookending Mr. Bush’s address, Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva and French President Nicolas Sarkozy both voiced grave concerns about the problems in U.S. and global markets.

Mr. Sarkozy called the current situation “the most serious economic crisis that the world has experienced since that of the 1930’s.”

Mr. da Silva called it a “harsh reality” and said that “the global nature of this crisis means the solutions we adopt must also be global.”

Both leaders also had harsh words for financial speculators and called for more aggressive oversight of financial markets, while Mr. da Silva denounced the possibility that the losses of wealthy investment bankers would be “socialized.”

“We must not allow the boundless greed of a few to be shouldered by all,” he said.

Mr. Sarkozy also said that “those who place in jeopardy peoples savings need to be punished.”

The Bush administration has resisted congressional calls to limit pay for CEO’s of failed financial firms, saying it might prompt executives not to cooperate with the bailout plan and hurt the government’s efforts to fix the problem.

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