U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Wednesday called for global cooperation to stabilize financial markets and said countries must consider the global situation as well as their own domestic financial circumstances. “Governments have and must continue to take individual and collective actions to provide much needed liquidity, strengthen financial institutions through the provision of capital ... and protect the savings of our citizens,” he said in a statement. Paulson was speaking ahead of Friday's Group of Seven meeting, where finance ministers and central bankers from the world's richest nations – the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – will discuss ways to halt the financial crisis. “We must also take care to ensure that our actions are closely coordinated and communicated so that the action of one country does not come at the expense of others or the stability of the system as a whole,” Paulson said. Paulson also called for a special meeting of the Group of 20, which includes a number of emerging-market countries hard-hit by the financial crisis. He warned that the turmoil “will not end quickly” and that the Treasury Department will not be able to begin buying unwanted and illiquid assets from financial firms for a few weeks. Last week, Congress approved a $700 billion bailout program to allow the department to make the purchases. Paulson described U.S. and global financial markets as “severely strained. “Investor confidence is critical to restore liquidity and enhance the stability of our financial system,” he said.
