世界一些经济大国的领导人星期五面对分崩离析的全球金融系统。他们在华盛顿开会，应对急剧下滑的股市、冻结的信贷市场以及对全球走向经济衰退的恐惧。美国股市继星期四下滑之后，星期五开市后几分钟再暴跌5%，但是后来在动荡的交易中收复了失地。欧洲主要股市指数在下午交易中直落。股市暴跌迫使俄罗斯和印度尼西亚的官员下令无限期停止股市交易。巴西政府官员在股市下跌至少10%后暂时停止了股市交易。日本的日经指数收盘时跌落将近10%，创下自1987年以来的最大单日跌幅。
来自七大工业国的官员在国际货币基金组织召开会议之前到华盛顿开会。他们将于星期六和布什总统会见。布什总统在电视实况转播讲话中试图让世界各地的投资者放心。他说，政府官员正在采取强有力的措施来化解危机，并指责说，“恐惧心理”造成股票价格的“惊人”跌落。布什总统说，美国是一个富有国家，拥有解决这些问题的工具和资源。他敦促美国人民对国家未来抱有信心。
Leaders of the world’s largest economies confronted a global financial system in shambles today (Friday) as they gathered in Washington to cope with a plunging stock market, a frozen credit market, and fears the world is headed for recession. U.S. stock markets plunged around five percent in the first few minutes of trading, but later recovered in volatile trading. Key European stock market indexes were down sharply in afternoon trading. Steep declines forced officials in Russia and Indonesia to suspend trading indefinitely. Brazilian officials suspended trading temporarily after declines of at least ten percent. And Japan’s Nikkei index was off nearly 10 percent at the close — its biggest one-day loss since 1987.
Officials from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are gathering in Washington ahead of a meeting of the International Monetary Fund, and will meet with U.S. President George Bush on Saturday. In televised remarks today (Friday), Mr. Bush tried to reassure investors around the world. He said officials are taking strong measures to solve the crisis, and blamed “fear” for what he described as the “startling” drop in stock prices. Mr. Bush said the United States is a wealthy nation with the tools and resources to solve these problems, and urged Americans to be confident in the country’s future.