US treasury's Wall Street bailout plan dubbed 'cash for trash'

Last Modified: 23 Sep 2008
By: Sarah Smith, Katie Razzall

The head of the Federal Reserve and the US treasury secretary go to congress to lobby for their Wall Street bail-out plan.

The economic crisis is prompting bitter debate in Washington.

But one senator warned the country risked wasting $700bn of taxpayers' money, while another dismissed the idea of taking on the banks' toxic debts as "cash for trash".

Sarah Smith investigates.

Meanwhile in the UK, banking shares take another hit as the mortgage market shows another big fall. Katie Razzall reports.

America's bad mortgage debt was the spark that lit the flames of the global economic turmoil. Gordon Brown declared today that all the old certainties had been "turned on their heads".

It has left Britain's economy struggling to stay out of the red. Shares in the banking sector took another hit today, and new figures show another massive fall in the mortgage market.

Lending by the major banks fell to a new record low in August, and approvals for house purchases are 64 per cent down on a year ago.