British Finance Minister Alistair Darling warns of bumpy times ahead for
the economy, but vows to help people.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 22, 2008) REUTERS -
Britain will spend more to help people in hard economic times and
toughen regulation to curb financial market excesses, Finance Minister
Alistair Darling said on Monday (September 22).
On Friday (September 19) global stocks posted the biggest one-day gain
in 20 years after the U.S. Treasury proposed the largest-ever bank rescue plan
and authorities banned short selling and exercised other measures to restore
calm in the markets.
However, many aspects of the $700 billion U.S. rescue plan have yet to
be made public. Concerns remain over the slowing U.S. economy and its impact
on the rest of the world after a frantic week which saw the collapse of Lehman
Brothers and the firesale of Merrill Lynch and UK bank HBOS.
David Keeble, an economist for Calyon Credit Agricole, said ordinary
Americans will not see an immediate impact froom the $700 billion U.S. rescue
plan.
"It's going to take several quarters here in order to see say,
mortgages to come down, to see some stabilization coming through on the
housing markets and they will be a little bit underwhelmed. What they will see
perhaps is the value of their 401k's (pension plans) start to rise. Perhaps
the equity markets will start to appreciate, but otherwise I think they will
be a little bit disappointed for a while," he said in London.
On Monday, British Finance Minister Alistair Darling said the UK
government will do more to help people in hard economic times.
"It's clear we have to put in place measures to stop problems
being repeated. It is clearer than ever markets can't do this on their own.
Nor can individual governments," he said at the ruling Labour Party
conference in Manchester.
"Now the first priority is to stabilize the banking system, if we
don't, the whole world economy is at risk," he added.
European stocks closed lower on Monday after an earlier gain when bank
shares rose on news that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial said it planned to buy 10 to
20 percent of the common stock of Morgan Stanley.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended
1.9 percent lower at 1,128.58 after a record surge of more than 8 percent on
Friday.