Germany's Merkel tells parliament financial market situation is
"serious" and unprecedented as countries around the world scrambled
to slow the growing global financial crisis on Tuesday.

BERLIN, GERMANY (OCTOBER 7, 2008) REUTERS -
The situation on financial markets is serious and unprecedented,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday (October 7).
Speaking at a special session of the Bundestag lower house of
parliament devoted to the financial crisis, Merkel said: "The situation
on financial markets is serious and has not been seen in this form
before."
"In many respects it confirms what was associated with greed,
irresponsible speculation and mismanagement in the financial sector,"
Merkel said.
"The Irish response is not appropriate, putting their own banking
institutions under an umbrella (motions) without consultation and not
including other international institutions which have been paying taxes in
Ireland for a long time, thereby obviously creating a competition distortion
which in my view is not acceptable in the single European Market," she
added.
Merkel urged authorities to consider whether the cooperation between
the BaFin financial regulator and the German central bank could be made more
efficient.