...but what about Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday... until 2010 and beyond?
From abc.com
Rudd hails US bailout as 'step forward'
Posted October 4, 2008 12:12:00 Updated October 4, 2008 12:39:00
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, says the approval of the $US700 billion bailout package by the United States Congress is a big step towards stabilising financial markets.
Overnight the US Congress approved the massive rescue deal, which is aimed at supporting troubled American banks and easing the credit crunch on Wall Street.
During a visit to a shopping mall in Sydney's western suburbs this morning, Mr Rudd thanked US leaders for approving the bill.
But he said it would not completely fix the global economy.
"This is a positive step forward in restoring stability to the global banking system," he said.
"But there is still much, much more work to be done.
"The stability of the banking system is important to all working families everywhere."
Federal Opposition Leader Mr Turnbull says the benefits of the US bailout package will take sometime to flow through.
He says the fact the US stock markets fell after the bill was passed shows it not the silver bullet.
"I would not be surprised if there were not more bad days on Wall Street," he said.
"I hope now that the trend will be to improve, and certainly it would be in a much worse position had this bailout not been passed into law."
He says the package is an important step in restoring confidence in global financial markets, and the move will also ease the pressure on Australian banks and other financial institutions.
Markets Economists expect the Australian market will react cautiously to the bailout package.
ComSec economist Craig James says sanity prevailed in the passing of the rescue package.
"The US had to pass this rescue package and the good news is it has been passed," he said.
Mr James says the Australian market will probably drop 40 to 50 points when it re-opens on Monday.
ANZ economist Saul Eslake agrees this will probably be the case.
"A decline of about 1 per cent would be in line with the movements that have occurred on Wall Street," he said.
Mr Eslake says the fact the Dow Jones closed down after the bill was passed suggests the US economy is in recession.
"Our market has shown a pattern of following American movements when they're relatively large, so a fall of that order or magnitude would be no surprise at all," he said.
Mr James says the predicted interest rate cut of 0.25 per cent by the Reserve Bank will restore health and confidence in the Australian economy.
