News and Finance

Gordon Brown told U.S. lawmakers to “seize the moment” created by the credit crunch and election of President Barack Obama and reshape the global banking system.

The fifth British prime minister to address a joint session of Congress, Brown, 58, said that where predecessors such as Winston Churchill, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher came “in times of war to talk of war,” his message is “of a global economy in crisis and a planet imperiled.”

The remarks are aimed at gathering U.S. support for his agenda at the summit of leaders from the Group of 20 nations, which Brown hosts in London next month. Brown wants global financial regulations to bolster the power of national watchdogs including the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. and Financial Services Authority in Britain.

A text of Brown’s speech circulated by his office in advance omitted the prime minister’s usual description of the turmoil in financial markets as having started in the U.S. and spreading to the rest of the world.

For Brown, the speech is an opportunity to boost his status with British voters by portraying himself as a leader on the world stage. Opinion polls show he would now lose an election, which he must call within 18 months, and suggest that the Conservative opposition is more trusted to steer Britain out of recession.

‘Economic Hurricane’

“An economic hurricane has swept the world,” Brown said. “When banks have failed and markets have faltered, we the representatives of the people have to be the people’s last line of defense.”

The prime minister amplified the message he and Obama gave after meeting in Washington yesterday, that the rulebook governing banks must be modernized to prevent future turmoil in markets that tipped the world economy into recession.

Obama last month signed into law one of the biggest economic rescue efforts in U.S. history, a $787 billion stimulus bill that he says will restore some of the jobs lost in the recession and spur future U new car loan rates.S. growth. Brown has set out his own plans for 20 billion pounds ($28 billion) in tax cuts and spending increases and may have further measures in a budget statement due on April 22.

Tax Havens

“How much safer would everybody’s savings be if the whole world finally came together to outlaw shadow banking systems and offshore tax havens?” Brown said. “Each of our actions, if combined, could mean a whole much greater than the sum of the parts. All and not just some banks stabilized. On fiscal stimulus, the impact multiplied because everybody does it.”

In a speech that quotes Abraham Lincoln, Brown said the election of a new president “gave the world renewed hope” and that “now, more than ever, the rest of the world wants to work with you.”

He warned his audience not to “succumb to a race to the bottom and a protectionism that history tells us in the end protects no one.”

Brown argued that the current crisis offers an opportunity for governments as well as a challenge. “We are summoned not just to manage our times but to transform them,” he said. “And if perhaps some once thought it beyond our power to shape global markets to meet the needs of the people, we know now it is our duty.”

The prime minister also urged Americans to back European efforts to protect the environment and to focus on cutting emissions of carbon associated with burning oil and gas.

“You, the nation that had the vision to put a man on the moon, are also the nation with the vision to protect and preserve our planet Earth,” Brown said.

The prime minister also announced that Queen Elizabeth II will give Senator Edward Kennedy an honorary knighthood, for his work for peace in Northern Ireland and his contribution to U.S.- U.K. relations.

Source