Bloomberg: US bail-out not enough

Not bailing Lehman Brothers was a "terrible mistake", says Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, says the US bail-out plan is not sufficient to lift the American economy out of the current crisis.

He told the BBC's HARDtalk that it was "one necessary step" but it would not solve the credit crunch on its own.

He added that there was "real fear" among governments in all countries today over the economic crisis.

The $700bn (�394bn) bail-out package is aimed at buying up the bad debts of failing institutions on Wall Street.

The move is aimed at getting credit markets moving again.

"I don't think there's anybody that really believes that this is sufficient to deal with the current crisis. It is one step. It is probably a necessary step," Mr Bloomberg said.

"It was critical that it gets going now partially because it will make a difference and partially because if you didn't do it, it would send a message that the government's not going to do something."

Mr Bloomberg also said it was a "terrible mistake" that the US did not rescue investment bank Lehman Brothers.

"I don't know that I knew any more than anybody else did but in retrospect we probably should have bailed out Lehman Brothers," he said.

"It spreads the fear far and wide and all of these institutions have contracts with each other so that if one side of the contract disappears the guy on the other side has a very serious problem."

HARDtalk is broadcast on BBC World news channel at 0330, 0830, 1430, 2030 and 2230 GMT. This programme will be broadcast on Tuesday 7th October.

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