Brown calls for global interest rate cuts

Gordon Brown today called for interest rate cuts and fiscal stimulus around the world.

Speaking to the U.S. Congress on a trip to Washington to discuss the economic crisis with President Barack Obama, Brown said the United States and a few countries could not be expected to shoulder the burden of restoring growth alone.

"So let us work together for the worldwide reduction of interest rates and a scale of stimulus round the world equal to the depth of the recession and the dimensions of the recovery we must make," he said.

Brown is hosting a Group of 20 summit in London next month and is eager to get an agreement for a coordinated plan to boost the world economy as it faces its worst crisis in decades.

"Just think how each of our actions, if combined, could mean a whole, much greater than the sum of the parts -- all and not just some banks stabilised; on fiscal stimulus, the impact multiplied because everybody does it," he said.

"Today's financial institutions are so interwoven that a bad bank anywhere is a threat to good banks everywhere."

"You are also restructuring your banks. So are we. But how much safer would everybody's savings be if the whole world came together to outlaw shadow banking systems and offshore tax havens."