Con 228 votos en contra y 205 a favor, los legisladores estadunidenses decidieron no aprobar la medida. Sin embargo, las negociaciones continuarán durante la semana.
La Jornada On Line
Publicado: 29/09/2008 13:26
Washington. La Cámara de Representantes de EU rechazó el plan de rescate financiero por 228 votos en contra y 205 a favor y decretó un receso en la votación, según divulgó la cadena de noticias CNN en español.
Se requería de un mínimo de 218 votos a favor para aprobar la medida.
Aún no se ha informado cuándo se reiniciará la sesión.
La mayoría de los votos en contra fue de legisladores republicanos.
House of Representatives votes against plan spreading ripples of shock through the global financial marketsAndrew Clark in New York guardian.co.uk, Monday September 29 2008 21:00 BST Article historyThe US government's $700bn emergency bail-out of the banking industry collapsed in disarray tonight as Congress voted against the plan, sending Wall Street stocks plummeting and spreading ripples of shock through the global financial markets.
Despite a round-the-clock weekend negotiating session, members of the House of Representatives ignored a last-ditch appeal from George Bush by rejecting the rescue scheme on an initial count by 228 votes to 205.
As Congressional leaders went back to the drawing board, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged on fears of further banking failures.
At one point, the blue-chip average was down by 705 points, exceeding its biggest ever previous one-day points fall of 684 in September 2001. The Dow closed down 590, a 5.49% drop.
The dramatic and unexpected show of political opposition came largely from the Republican benches, where a majority of congressmen opposed the measure citing concern among the public about the cost of the bail-out. The White House said Bush was "very disappointed" by the outcome.
The Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, pledged that political leaders would continue looking for a solution which could satisfy all sides.
"We put everything we had into getting the votes to get there today," he said. "I think we need to renew our efforts to find a solution that Congress can support."
On Wall Street, there were audible groans as traders gathered around television monitors to watch the vote playing out.
"Everybody just stood their with their mouths open," said Sal Catrini, an executive director at JP Morgan in New York, who predicted that uncertainty would send stocks falling even further. "We're seeing real selling but no buyers."
The price of oil plummeted by more than $6 per barrel on concern that commercial activity would wane, the dollar shrunk on worries about the future of the US economy and the price of gold leapt by 3% as investors sought safe havens from the storm.
In London, where the market closed before the outcome of the vote became clear, the FTSE 100 index dropped by 5.3%, shedding 269 points to close at 4,818.
But in New York, major indices were down even further. The technology-dominated Nasdaq exchange was heading for its biggest drop since September 2001 with a fall of 6.3%, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped by 6%.
Lawmakers' negative vote came in spite of a spate of reminders of the fragility of the financial industry. Following the British government's nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley over the weekend, a US bank, Wachovia, was rescued from the brink of collapse by Citigroup today and the Icelandic government stepped in to rescue one of its leading banks.
The Democratic leader in the House, Barney Frank, said he would assess the economic reaction before deciding what to do next. He blamed Republicans for "killing" the bail-out. But conservatives said the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had caused ill-will by making a "partisan" speech in the closing hours of a debate on the plan.
The bail-out was conceived as a government fund to buy up toxic mortgage-related securities which have poisoned the balance sheet of leading banks, causing the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns and threatening other Wall Street institutions.
Over the weekend, leaders from both parties packed the plan with concessions in an attempt to win over sceptics. The Democrats inserted limits to pay packets for senior banking executives while the Republicans won the creation of a state-sponsored insurance scheme intended to guarantee against future defaults.
The Congressional vote amounts to a shattering defeat for Bush and for the treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and will further undermine the White House's credibility in Bush's last months in office.
In an early morning address, Bush had appealed for approval from Congress: "With this strong and decisive legislation, we will help restart the flow of credit, so American families can meet their daily needs and American businesses can make purchases, ship goods, and meet their payrolls."
US stocks plunge after shock House vote against bailout
Despite a round-the-clock weekend negotiating session, members of the House of Representatives ignored a last-ditch appeal from George Bush by rejecting the rescue scheme on an initial count by 228 votes to 205.
As Congressional leaders went back to the drawing board, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged on fears of further banking failures.
At one point, the blue-chip average was down by 705 points, exceeding its biggest ever previous one-day points fall of 684 in September 2001. The Dow closed down 590, a 5.49% drop.
The dramatic and unexpected show of political opposition came largely from the Republican benches, where a majority of congressmen opposed the measure citing concern among the public about the cost of the bail-out. The White House said Bush was "very disappointed" by the outcome.
The Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, pledged that political leaders would continue looking for a solution which could satisfy all sides.
"We put everything we had into getting the votes to get there today," he said. "I think we need to renew our efforts to find a solution that Congress can support."
On Wall Street, there were audible groans as traders gathered around television monitors to watch the vote playing out.
"Everybody just stood their with their mouths open," said Sal Catrini, an executive director at JP Morgan in New York, who predicted that uncertainty would send stocks falling even further. "We're seeing real selling but no buyers."
The price of oil plummeted by more than $6 per barrel on concern that commercial activity would wane, the dollar shrunk on worries about the future of the US economy and the price of gold leapt by 3% as investors sought safe havens from the storm.
In London, where the market closed before the outcome of the vote became clear, the FTSE 100 index dropped by 5.3%, shedding 269 points to close at 4,818.
But in New York, major indices were down even further. The technology-dominated Nasdaq exchange was heading for its biggest drop since September 2001 with a fall of 6.3%, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped by 6%.
Lawmakers' negative vote came in spite of a spate of reminders of the fragility of the financial industry. Following the British government's nationalisation of Bradford & Bingley over the weekend, a US bank, Wachovia, was rescued from the brink of collapse by Citigroup today and the Icelandic government stepped in to rescue one of its leading banks.
The Democratic leader in the House, Barney Frank, said he would assess the economic reaction before deciding what to do next. He blamed Republicans for "killing" the bail-out. But conservatives said the Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, had caused ill-will by making a "partisan" speech in the closing hours of a debate on the plan.
The bail-out was conceived as a government fund to buy up toxic mortgage-related securities which have poisoned the balance sheet of leading banks, causing the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns and threatening other Wall Street institutions.
Over the weekend, leaders from both parties packed the plan with concessions in an attempt to win over sceptics. The Democrats inserted limits to pay packets for senior banking executives while the Republicans won the creation of a state-sponsored insurance scheme intended to guarantee against future defaults.
The Congressional vote amounts to a shattering defeat for Bush and for the treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and will further undermine the White House's credibility in Bush's last months in office.
In an early morning address, Bush had appealed for approval from Congress: "With this strong and decisive legislation, we will help restart the flow of credit, so American families can meet their daily needs and American businesses can make purchases, ship goods, and meet their payrolls."
US stocks plunge after shock House vote against bailout
Agencies
Monday, 29 September 2008
The US House of Representatives tonight voted against the $700 billion financial rescue plan, sending shock waves through the world's financial markets.
There was a clear majority for the defeat: 226 lawmakers voted against the bill and 207 were in favour.
Wall Street shares plunged sharply as the news came through, tumbling 5 per cent.
President George Bush has said the bill is necessary if the US is to avoid "financial panic" and a "long and painful recession".
Republicans led the House revolt against the bill. Their leaders later announced they were to meet to discuss the next steps.
Earlier today, Mr Bush repeated his assertion that the bill would present a "difficult vote" for members of the US Congress, but urged them to pass the "bold" measure.
"A vote for this bill is a vote to prevent economic damage to you and your community," he said.
But when the critical vote was tallied, too few members of the House were willing to support the unpopular measure.
Tonight Mr Bush said he was "very disappointed".
All 435 members of the House are involved in elections on November 4 and the bill, which would commit up to 700 billion dollars of taxpayers' money and represents unprecedented private sector intervention, faced strong opposition from House Republicans and prompted protests in Wall Street and across the US last week.
Paul Ryan, a Republican representative from Wisconsin, said: "We're all worried about losing our jobs.
"Most of us say, 'I want this thing to pass, but I want you to vote for it - not me'."
He added: "We're in this moment, and if we fail to do the right thing, Heaven help us."
The vote had been preceded by unusually aggressive lobbying.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Mr Bush had used a "call list" of people he wanted to persuade to vote yes.
Members of the House shouted news of the plummeting Dow Jones average as others crowded on the House floor during the drawn-out and tense call of the roll, which dragged on for roughly 40 minutes as leaders on both sides scrambled to corral enough of their rank-and-file members to support the deeply unpopular measure.
They found only two and the bill was rejected 228-205.
Democratic and Republican negotiators continued private talks in a bid to bring a similar bill for another vote before the House breaks.
House Republicans blamed a partisan speech by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, for the bill's failure.
John Boehner, the Republican minority leader, said: "Americans are angry, and so are my colleagues. They don't want to have to vote for a bill like this. And I understand that.
"But I have concerns about what this means for the American people, what it means for our economy and what it means for people's jobs.
"I think that we need to renew our efforts to find a solution that Congress can support.
"I do believe we could have got there today, had it not been for this partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House.
"The Speaker had to give a partisan voice that poisoned our conference, caused a number of members that we thought we could get to go south."
He went on: "Regardless of what happened today, we've no choice in my view, but to work together to try to find a solution to make sure we save our economy and we save our constituencies."
In Britain, shadow chancellor George Osborne said the situation had to be stabilised, and then politicians must reflect on what caused the economic "wreckage".
He told Channel 4 News: "The task at hand on a day like this is to work out what we can do to stabilise the situation, what the American government can do now they have lost the vote in Congress - although perhaps there will be some way of keeping the vote open, I know it is a fast emerging situation there.
"And then we will all have to consider how we allowed over 10 years an economy built on debt in the US, but even more so in Britain, to leave us with the wreckage we see today."
A White House spokesman said Mr Bush was "very disappointed".
"There's no question that the country is facing a difficult crisis that needs to be addressed," deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said.
He said the president will be meeting members of his team later in the day "to determine next steps".
The rescue plan dominated the US presidential race last week.
Republican John McCain suspended his campaign and travelled to Washington to focus on the crisis engulfing the country.
He also vowed not to take part in last Friday's presidential debate until a deal was agreed, but later changed his mind.
His Democratic rival Barack Obama, along with other Democrats, warned that interjecting presidential politics into tense negotiations could cause more harm than good.
Both candidates attended an unprecedented White House meeting with Mr Bush and other top US politicians on Thursday, which ended in turmoil.
US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson went down on one knee at one point to plead with Democrats not to say anything to the media which would harm the chances of a deal.
U.S. stocks fall sharply after measure fails
By Michael M. Grynbaum
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Dow Jones industrials dropped suddenly on Monday afternoon after the bailout plan being voted on by the House of Representatives failed to pass.
The Dow, which had been trading down about 300 points for most of the afternoon, fell to a 600-point deficit before recovering slightly. The index was down more than 550 points as lawmakers scrambled, but failed, to round up votes to pass the package.
The House on Monday defeated the bill by a vote of 228-205; a second attempt to pass the bill was planned.
The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was down 6.5 percent after dropping as far as 7 percent.
The drop reinforced the fear coursing through Wall Street as investors wondered whether the bailout plan would eventually pass Congress. Before the vote, supporters of the bill said they thought the legislation would squeak through with a slim majority. But as the initial period of voting ended, the bill appeared to be in danger of not passing the House.
Shares had fallen earlier in the day despite what lawmakers had described as an agreement on the bailout plan. Citigroup also snatched up the core business of Wachovia, the ailing banking giant, which had been in danger of collapse.
The Wachovia move, which was spearheaded by federal regulators, could have been taken as a sign that the government was eager to restore stability to the financial system. But the near-collapse of Wachovia, which was the nation's fourth-largest bank, may have underscored the troubling sense among investors that any bank is vulnerable in the current crisis.
The world's credit markets also remained under pressure. Yields on Treasuries dropped and lending rates stayed high, signs that investors remained deeply ill at ease about the health of the financial system.
Responding to the strain, the Federal Reserve moved to vastly increase the amount of liquidity it makes available to major players in the world financial system. The Fed will triple the size of its regular auctions for banks and work with nine other central banks to increase the flow of credit.
The Fed is hoping to combat a hoarding mentality that has arisen among banks, whose reluctance to lend — even to healthy institutions — has jammed up critical financial arteries that many small businesses depend on.
On Monday, the cost of borrowing euros for a three-month period rose to the highest price on record. Banks are charging enormous premiums for short-term financing. And money continued to flow into the safe space of Treasury bills and traditional hedges like gold, the price of which rose 2.2 percent.
Shares of Wachovia lost 90 percent of their value in electronic overnight, but the stock never opened on Monday morning as officials halted trading before the opening bell.
Citigroup shares fell, and shares of financial stocks traded lower. Morgan Stanley fell 11 percent and Goldman Sachs was off 8 percent.
European stocks, already sharply down at the New York open, fell further after the declines on Wall Street. Stocks in London and Paris were down more than 5 percent, and Frankfurt was down about 4 percent. In Asia, the benchmark Hong Kong index plummeted 4.3 percent overnight; Tokyo's Nikkei 225 lost 1.2 percent.
President Bush appeared outside the White House at 7:30 a.m. on Monday, before the markets opened, to endorse the bailout legislation that was agreed upon over the weekend.
"A vote for this bill is a vote to prevent economic damage to you and your community," the president said in a brief statement. "The impact of the credit crisis and housing correction will continue to affect our financial system and growth of our economy over time. But I am confident that in the long run, America will overcome these challenges."
The problems in Europe came after government bailouts of several banks, including the British lender Bradford & Bingley and the Belgian-Dutch financial group, Fortis.
If anything, the moves created uncertainty about which institution would be next, said Jean Bruneau, a trader at Société Générale in Paris.
Shares of the Brussels-based lender Dexia fell 22.7 percent as investors worried that it might be the next bank to need government help. The company may soon announce a plan to raise capital, the French newspaper Le Figaro said, without citing a source.
The agreement on Capitol Hill on the terms of the bailout package failed to lift the mood in Europe.
"The U.S. bailout doesn't change some negative short-term factors — that the economic outlook is weak and that the earnings outlook is weak," said Tammo Greetfeld, a strategist at UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking in Munich. "The key question is can the bailout create enough optimism among investors that they focus on the medium-term improvement and ignore short-term weakness. We're not there yet, the benefits look to be too far down the road."
The dollar gained against the euro and the pound, and was stable against the yen.
Stock markets in Asia fell on renewed fears of a global credit crunch, erasing earlier gains that came after the weekend agreement on Capitol Hill.
The Standard and Poor's/Australian Stock Exchange 200 Index fell 2 percent after rising slightly on Monday morning. The Kospi Index was down 1.3 percent after an early 1.2 percent surge in Seoul.
Bradford & Bingley, the British lender, was seized by the government after the credit crisis shut off financing and competitors refused to buy mortgage loans that customers were struggling to repay.
Banco Santander, the Spanish lender, will pay $1.1 billion to buy Bradford & Bingley branches and deposits, the Treasury said. Santander shares declined 2.8 percent, to 10.61 euros. Shares in UBS, the Swiss bank, fell 7.7 percent.
The stock market in Taiwan was closed on Monday as Typhoon Jangmi passed directly over Taipei. Mainland China's stock markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen are closed this week as part of a national holiday marking the establishment of China as a Communist country in 1949.
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