Antidepressants Do Nothing For Children With Autism

August 13, 2010 by JP  
Filed under Health

August 13th, 2010

Natural News

By: Jonathan Benson

A new report published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews has once again found that the antidepressants commonly prescribed to children with autism are not effective at improving behavior. After evaluating seven different studies about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and autism, the team says there is no evidence that they work any better than a placebo at helping autistic children.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any medications to specifically treat autism, but they have approved three SSRIs — sertraline (Zoloft), fluoxetine (Prozac) and fluvoxamine (Luvox) — to alleviate certain symptoms of the illness. But according to the research, it appears these drugs are being needlessly prescribed because they do not provide any benefits.

The new study hinges upon a government-funded investigation last year that found that the antidepressant citalopram (Celexa) is no better than a placebo at alleviating autism symptoms. Upon further investigation, researchers came to realize that all related studies on other antidepressants revealed the same thing.

Besides not working, these antidepressants often cause major side effects, especially in young people. In the citalopram study, one child participant developed severe seizures from taking the drug. Even after being taken off it, the child continued to have seizures. Other children taking it had a hard time sleeping and concentrating.

The team recommends that children continue to take these medications if they seem to be helping and are not inducing side effects, but it remains to be seen whether or not the findings will affect how doctors prescribe SSRIs to autistic children going forward.

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10 Reason Why Obama Presidency Is Collapsing

August 13, 2010 by Duffy  
Filed under Government

August 13, 2010

Telegraph

By: Nile Gardener

The last few weeks have been a nightmare for President Obama, in a summer of discontent in the United States which has deeply unsettled the ruling liberal elites, so much so that even the Left has begun to turn against the White House. While the anti-establishment Tea Party movement has gained significant ground and is now a rising and powerful political force to be reckoned with, many of the president’s own supporters as well as independents are rapidly losing faith in Barack Obama, with open warfare breaking out between the White House and the left-wing of the Democratic Party. While conservatism in America grows stronger by the day, the forces of liberalism are growing increasingly weaker and divided.

Against this backdrop, the president’s approval ratings have been sliding dramatically all summer, with the latest Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll of US voters dropping to minus 22 points, the lowest point so far for Barack Obama since taking office. While just 24 per cent of American voters strongly approve of the president’s job performance, almost twice that number, 46 per cent, strongly disapprove. According to Rasmussen, 65 per cent of voters believe the United States is going down the wrong track, including 70 per cent of independents.

The RealClearPolitics average of polls now has President Obama at over 50 per cent disapproval, a remarkably high figure for a president just 18 months into his first term. Strikingly, the latest USA Today/Gallup survey has the President on just 41 per cent approval, with 53 per cent disapproving.

There are an array of reasons behind the stunning decline and political fall of President Obama, chief among them fears over the current state of the US economy, with widespread concern over high levels of unemployment, the unstable housing market, and above all the towering budget deficit. Americans are increasingly rejecting President Obama’s big government solutions to America’s economic woes, which many fear will lead to the United States sharing the same fate as Greece.

Growing disillusionment with the Obama administration’s handling of the economy as well as health care and immigration has gone hand in hand with mounting unhappiness with the President’s aloof and imperial style of leadership, and a growing perception that he is out of touch with ordinary Americans, especially at a time of significant economic pain. Barack Obama’s striking absence of natural leadership ability (and blatant lack of experience) has played a big part in undermining his credibility with the US public, with his lacklustre handling of the Gulf oil spill coming under particularly intense fire.

On the national security and foreign policy front, President Obama has not fared any better. His leadership on the war in Afghanistan has been confused and at times lacking in conviction, and seemingly dictated by domestic political priorities rather than military and strategic goals. His overall foreign policy has been an appalling mess, with his flawed strategy of engagement of hostile regimes spectacularly backfiring. And as for the War on Terror, his administration has not even acknowledged it is fighting one.

Can it get any worse for President Obama? Undoubtedly yes. Here are 10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in serious trouble, and why its prospects are unlikely to improve between now and the November mid-terms.

1. The Obama presidency is out of touch with the American people

In a previous post I noted how the Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancien Régime, extravagant, decaying and out of touch with ordinary Americans. The First Lady’s ill-conceived trip to Spain at a time of widespread economic hardship was symbolic of a White House that barely gives a second thought to public opinion on many issues, and frequently projects a distinctly elitist image. The “let them eat cake” approach didn’t play well over two centuries ago, and it won’t succeed today.

2. Most Americans don’t have confidence in the president’s leadership

This deficit of trust in Obama’s leadership is central to his decline. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, “nearly six in ten voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country”, and two thirds “say they are disillusioned with or angry about the way the federal government is working.” The poll showed that a staggering 58 per cent of Americans say they do not have confidence in the president’s decision-making, with just 42 per cent saying they do.

3. Obama fails to inspire

In contrast to the soaring rhetoric of his 2004 Convention speech in Boston which succeeded in impressing millions of television viewers at the time, America is no longer inspired by Barack Obama’s flat, monotonous and often dull presidential speeches and statements delivered via teleprompter. From his extraordinarily uninspiring Afghanistan speech at West Point to his flat State of the Union address, President Obama has failed to touch the heart of America. Even Jimmy Carter was more moving.

4. The United States is drowning in debt

The Congressional Budget Office Long-Term Budget Outlook offers a frightening picture of the scale of America’s national debt. Under its alternative fiscal scenario, the CBO projects that US debt could rise to 87 percent of GDP by 2020, 109 percent by 2025, and 185 percent in 2035. While much of Europe, led by Britain and Germany, are aggressively cutting their deficits, the Obama administration is actively growing America’s debt, and has no plan in place to avert a looming Greek-style financial crisis.

5. Obama’s Big Government message is falling flat

The relentless emphasis on bailouts and stimulus spending has done little to spur economic growth or create jobs, but has greatly advanced the power of the federal government in America. This is not an approach that is proving popular with the American public, and even most European governments have long ditched this tax and spend approach to saving their own economies.

6. Obama’s support for socialised health care is a huge political mistake

In an extraordinary act of political Harakiri, President Obama leant his full support to the hugely controversial, unpopular and divisive health care reform bill, with a monstrous price tag of $940 billion, whose repeal is now supported by 55 per cent of likely US voters. As I wrote at the time of its passing, the legislation is “a great leap forward by the United States towards a European-style vision of universal health care, which will only lead to soaring costs, higher taxes, and a surge in red tape for small businesses. This reckless legislation dramatically expands the power of the state over the lives of individuals, and could not be further from the vision of America’s founding fathers.”

7. Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill has been weak-kneed and indecisive

While much of the spilled oil in the Gulf has now been thankfully cleared up, the political damage for the White House will be long-lasting. Instead of showing real leadership on the matter by acing decisively and drawing upon offers of international support, the Obama administration settled on a more convenient strategy of relentlessly bashing an Anglo-American company while largely sitting on its hands. Significantly, a poll of Louisiana voters gave George W. Bush higher marks for his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, with 62 percent disapproving of Obama’s performance on the Gulf oil spill.

8. US foreign policy is an embarrassing mess under the Obama administration

It is hard to think of a single foreign policy success for the Obama administration, but there have been plenty of missteps which have weakened American global power as well as the standing of the United States. The surrender to Moscow on Third Site missile defence, the failure to aggressively stand up to Iran’s nuclear programme, the decision to side with ousted Marxists in Honduras, the slap in the face for Great Britain over the Falklands, have all contributed to the image of a US administration completely out of its depth in international affairs. The Obama administration’s high risk strategy of appeasing America’s enemies while kicking traditional US allies has only succeeded in weakening the United States while strengthening her adversaries.

9. President Obama is muddled and confused on national security

From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the War on Terror, President Obama’s leadership has often been muddled and confused. On Afghanistan he rightly sent tens of thousands of additional troops to the battlefield. At the same time however he bizarrely announced a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces beginning in July 2011, handing the initiative to the Taliban. On Iraq he has announced an end to combat operations and the withdrawal of all but 50,000 troops despite a recent upsurge in terrorist violence and political instability, and without the Iraqi military and police ready to take over. In addition he has ditched the concept of a War on Terror, replacing it with an Overseas Contingency Operation, hardly the right message to send in the midst of a long-war against Al-Qaeda.

10. Obama doesn’t believe in American greatness

Barack Obama has made it clear that he doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism, and has made apologising for his country into an art form. In a speech to the United Nations last September he stated that “no one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold.” It is difficult to see how a US president who holds these views and does not even accept America’s greatness in history can actually lead the world’s only superpower with force and conviction.

There is a distinctly Titanic-like feel to the Obama presidency and it’s not hard to see why. The most left-wing president in modern American history has tried to force a highly interventionist, government-driven agenda that runs counter to the principles of free enterprise, individual freedom, and limited government that have made the United States the greatest power in the world, and the freest nation on earth.

This, combined with weak leadership both at home and abroad against the backdrop of tremendous economic uncertainty in an increasingly dangerous world, has contributed to a spectacular political collapse for a president once thought to be invincible. America at its core remains a deeply conservative nation, which cherishes its traditions and founding principles. President Obama is increasingly out of step with the American people, by advancing policies that undermine the United States as a global power, while undercutting America’s deep-seated love for freedom.

Click Here For Full Report

US Food Crops Absorb Toxins From Treated Wastewater

August 13, 2010 by JP  
Filed under Health

August 13, 2010

Natural News

By: Ethan A. Huff

Several major reports have come out in recent years about the dangers of pharmaceutical drug residues being found in the nation’s water supplies. But a new study has shown that major American food crops like soybeans are also absorbing these chemicals, and others, from the treated wastewater that farmers are applying to them.

It is common practice for large-scale farm operations to dump billions of gallons of treated sewage and other recycled water on crops to help fertilize them. But this semi-treated water still contains chemical components from drugs, creams, lotions, shampoos and other consumer products, all of which end up in the soil.

A research team from the University of Toledo in Ohio decided to test whether or not major U.S. food crops were capable of absorbing these chemicals in real-life agricultural conditions, so they performed an experiment on soybeans, the second most-widely grown crop in the U.S.

After giving the plants water tainted with three pharmaceutical components and two antimicrobial compounds from personal care products, the team observed that one of the pharmaceutical drugs and both antimicrobial compounds concentrated heavily in the plants’ roots, eventually making their way into the stems and leaves. The other two chemicals absorbed somewhat, but not as much as the others.

“The first thing you have to consider with human exposure [to chemicals] through agriculture is whether it’s even possible,” explained Chad Kinney, an environmental chemist from Colorado State University in Pueblo. “That’s what was answered by this study.”

According to Chenxi Wu, the study lead, these chemicals could “accumulate through the food chain, and eventually end up in human consumers.”

Click Here For The Full Report

Iran’s Nuclear Plant Will Start Next Week

August 13, 2010 by Duffy  
Filed under NWO

August 13, 2010

AP News

by Vladimir Isachenkov

Russia’s nuclear agency said Friday that it will load fuel into Iran’s first nuclear power plant next week, defying U.S. calls to hold off the start of the launch.

Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said Friday that uranium fuel shipped by Russia will be loaded into the Bushehr reactor on Aug. 21, beginning the startup process.

“From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation,” he told The Associated Press.

The United States has called for Russia to delay the startup until Iran proves that it’s not developing nuclear weapons. Russian officials said that the latest U.N. sanctions against Iran won’t affect the Bushehr project.

Russia signed a $1 billion contract in 1995 for building the Bushehr plant, but it has dragged its feet on completing the project for years.

Moscow has cited technical reasons for the delays, but analysts say Moscow has used the project to press Iran to ease its defiance over its nuclear program.

Novikov said that Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko will travel to Bushehr in southern Iran for the Aug. 21 ceremony, which will also be attended by the Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who also heads the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in March that the Bushehr plant would begin operating this summer. Some Iranian lawmakers have accused Russia of delaying the project under the Western pressure.

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Mushrooms Are Made Into Green Packaging Material

August 13, 2010 by JP  
Filed under Health

August 13, 2010

Natural News

By: S.L. Baker

It sounds like a futuristic sci fi idea: a non-toxic, earth friendly packing material that grows itself and, after it’s used, makes a great garden compost. But this isn’t fiction — it’s mushrooms.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), two former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergraduates, Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer, came up with the idea to make a composite of mushroom roots that could be used as a packing foam substitute. Their product, which they dubbed Mycobond, is now hitting the market and, according to a NSF press statement, has several advantages for the environment.

First of all, the manufacture of Mycobond requires just one eighth the energy and one tenth the carbon dioxide of traditional foam packing material. In fact, most of the manufacturing process is virtually energy-free with the mycelia (the vegetative parts of the mushrooms which consist of masses of branching, thread-like hyphae) simply growing by digesting agricultural starter material (mostly cotton seed or wood fiber) in a dark, room temperature environment.

The growth take place within a molded plastic structure which can be customized for whatever needs to be packed with the mushroom material. That means no energy at all is required for shaping the products. “We don’t manufacture materials, we grow them,” McIntyre explained in a statement to the media. “We’re converting agricultural byproducts into a higher-value product.”

The material has another economic benefit as well, he added, because the cost of mushroom packing material isn’t tied to the price fluctuations of synthetic materials that are derived from sources like petroleum. “All of our raw materials are inherently renewable and they are literally waste streams,” McIntyre said. “It’s an open system based on biological materials.”

Once fully formed, each Mycobond piece is heat-treated to stop the growth process and then delivered to the customer. Bayer and McIntyre, whose business is called Ecovative, are working to turn the entire process into a packaged kit that will eventually allow shipping facilities, and even homeowners, to grow their own Mycobond materials.

With support from NSF, McIntyre and Bayer are also developing an even less energy-intensive method to sterilize the agricultural waste starter material they use. Sterilization is a necessary step for enabling the mycelia to grow because it kills any spores that would compete with the growing-for-packing-material mushrooms. McIntyre and Bayer have been using a steam-heat sterilization process but they’ve now come up with a treatment made from cinnamon-bark oil, thyme oil, oregano oil and lemongrass oil that will allow the Mycobond mushroom product to grow in the open air, instead of their current clean-room environment.

“The biological disinfection process simply emulates nature in that it uses compounds that plants have evolved over centuries to inhibit microbial growth,” McIntyre said in a press statement. “The unintended result is that our production floor smells like a pizza shop.”

Click Here For The Full Article

Next WikiLeaks Release Could Worsen Pentagon’s Rep

August 13, 2010 by Duffy  
Filed under NWO

August 13, 2010

MYWAY

By: ANNE FLAHERTY

The Pentagon says it believes the next document dump by WikiLeaks will be even more damaging to national security and the war effort than the organization’s initial release of some 76,000 war files.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday that the military believes it has identified the additional 15,000 classified documents that WikiLeaks has vowed to release.

Morrell declined to identify the documents other than to say that their exposure would be ever more damaging than the thousands already published.

Last month, WikiLeaks posted online some 76,000 secret files that described in gritty detail U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

Click Here For Full report

New Superbug Gene Could Spread Widely

August 12, 2010 by JP  
Filed under Health

August 12, 2010

Associated Press

British scientists have found a new gene that allows any bacteria to become a superbug, and are warning that it is widespread in India and could soon appear worldwide.

The gene, which can be swapped between different bacteria to make them resistant to most drugs, has so far been identified in 37 people who returned to the U.K. after undergoing surgery in India or Pakistan.

The resistant gene has also been detected in Australia, Canada, the U.S., the Netherlands and Sweden. The researchers say since many Americans and Europeans travel to India and Pakistan for elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, it was likely the superbug gene would spread worldwide.

In an article published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, doctors reported finding a new gene, called NDM-1. The gene alters bacteria, making them resistant to nearly all known antibiotics. It has been seen largely in E. coli bacteria, the most common cause of urinary tract infections, and on DNA structures that can be easily copied and passed onto other types of bacteria.

The researchers said the superbug gene appeared to be already circulating widely in India, where the health system is much less likely to identify its presence or have adequate antibiotics to treat patients.

“The potential of NDM-1 to be a worldwide public health problem is great, and coordinated international surveillance is needed,” the authors wrote.

Still, the numbers of people who have been identified with the superbug gene remains very small.

“We are potentially at the beginning of another wave of antibiotic resistance, though we still have the power to stop it,” said Christopher Thomas, a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Birmingham who was not linked to the study. Thomas said better surveillance and infection control procedures might halt the gene’s spread.

Thomas said while people checking into British hospitals were unlikely to encounter the superbug gene, they should remain vigilant about standard hygiene measures like properly washing their hands.

“The spread of these multi-resistant bacteria merits very close monitoring,” wrote Johann Pitout of the division of microbiology at the University of Calgary, Canada, in an accompanying Lancet commentary.

Pitout called for international surveillance of the bacteria, particularly in countries that actively promote medical tourism.
“The consequences will be serious if family doctors have to treat infections caused by these multi-resistant bacteria on a daily basis,” he wrote.

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Biochemist Calls For Higher Vitamin D Recommendations

August 12, 2010 by JP  
Filed under Health

August 12, 2010

Natural News

by Ethan A. Huff

A plethora of research about the benefits of vitamin D has been flooding the mainstream news for a while now, and Anthony Norman, professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside, believes government recommendations worldwide for the vitamin need to be updated. He and others believe that most adults need between 2,000 and 4,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day, an intake level far higher than what is currently suggested.

Vitamin D is implicated in reducing the number of cases of autoimmune disease, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer and other things. Based on this fact, Norman says that people need more vitamin D than they are currently getting.

“A reduction in the frequency of these diseases would increase the quality and longevity of life and significantly reduce the cost of medical care worldwide,” he explained in an article. “It is high time that worldwide vitamin D nutritional policy, now at a crossroads, reflects current scientific knowledge about the vitamin’s many benefits and develops a sound vision for the future.”

Current U.S. recommendations for vitamin D range from 200 IU to 600 IU depending on a person’s age and health status. But these levels are far too low to obtain the wide range of benefits that vitamin D offers.

Norman and fellow researchers warn that if current recommendations are not updated to reflect all the emerging research, diseases like rickets and osteomalacia — which are easily prevented by adequate vitamin D intake — will continue to occur.

The best way to obtain vitamin D is through daily exposure to natural sunlight, but when this is not possible, safe tanning beds and vitamin D3 supplements can help to achieve optimal levels.

Click here for the full report.

Resveratrol Promotes Health And Longevity

August 12, 2010 by JP  
Filed under Health

August 12, 2010

Natural News

by S.L. Baker

Resveratrol, a phytochemical found in red grapes, grape juice and red wine, has been shown to prolong life in yeast and animals because of its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. But does that mean it has the same effects on the human body? University at Buffalo (UB) endocrinologists have tested the natural compound for the first time in a prospective trial in people and found the answer appears to be “yes”. And that finding adds to the growing amount of evidence that resveratrol may not only protect health but promote human longevity, too.

Husam Ghanim, PhD, UB research assistant professor of medicine and first author on the study, which was just published by the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, pointed out in a press statement that resveratrol has already been shown to extend life as well as to reduce the rate of aging in roundworms and fruit flies — most likely because it increases expression of a specific gene associated with longevity. There’s also research showing it plays a role in insulin resistance, a condition linked to oxidative stress (which is known to raise the risk of a host of serious health problems from heart disease to diabetes).

“Since there are no data demonstrating the effect of resveratrol on oxidative and inflammatory stress in humans, we decided to determine if the compound reduces the level of oxidative and inflammatory stress in humans,” Paresh Dandona, MD, PhD, UB distinguished professor of medicine and senior author on the study, said in the media release. “Several of the key mediators of insulin resistance also are pro-inflammatory, so we investigated the effect of resveratrol on their expression as well.”

For the groundbreaking study, which was conducted at Kaleida Health’s Diabetes-Endocrinology Center of Western New York where Dr. Dandona is the director, 20 research participants were divided into two groups. One group received a supplement containing 40 milligrams of resveratrol while the other group received an identical pill containing no active ingredient. Each person took either the resveratrol or placebo pill daily for six weeks. Fasting blood samples were taken at the start of the trial and at weeks one, three and six.

The results? The resveratrol supplement suppressed the generation of unstable molecules known as free radicals. By causing oxidative stress, free radicals spur inflammation which can damage the lining of blood vessels.

What’s more, the blood taken from those who took the resveratrol supplement also showed suppression of the inflammatory protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and other similar compounds that increase inflammation in blood vessels and interfere with the action of insulin. The blood samples from research subjects receiving the placebo showed no change in these biochemical markers of inflammation.

Shutting down inflammatory factors is significant because it indicates that in the long term, resveratrol could have an impact on whether someone develops type 2 diabetes and heart disease and/ or suffers a stroke. In addition, according to Dr. Dandona, it indicates the compound could have an anti-aging effect in humans.

As NaturalNews recently reported, French researchers also have made progress figuring out how resveratrol promotes health. In the first ever primate study of its kind, scientists from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris found resveratrol has the ability to rev up metabolism and spark weight loss (http://www.naturalnews.com/027420_r…).

Click here for the full report.

Confirmed: Bailouts Helped Foreign Firms

August 12, 2010 by Duffy  
Filed under NWO

August 12, 2010

AP News

by Marcy Gordon

The $700 billion U.S. bailout program launched in response to the global economic meltdown had a far greater impact overseas than other countries’ financial rescue plans did on the U.S., according to a new report from a congressional watchdog.

Billions of dollars in U.S. rescue funds wound up in big banks in France, Germany and other nations. That was probably inevitable because of the structure of the Treasury Department’s program, the Congressional Oversight Panel says in a new report issued Thursday.

The U.S. program aimed to stabilize the financial system by injecting money into as many banks as possible, including those with substantial operations overseas. Most other countries, by contrast, focused their efforts more narrowly on banks in their nations that usually lacked major U.S. operations.

But the report says that if the U.S. had gotten more data on which foreign banks would benefit the most, the government might have been able to ask those countries to share some of the cost.

“There were no data about where this money was going,” panel chair Elizabeth Warren said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “The American people have a right to know where the money went.”

An example: Major French and German banks were among the biggest beneficiaries of the U.S. rescue of American International Group Inc., yet the American government shouldered the entire $70 billion risk of pumping capital into the crippled insurance titan. The report compares that with the $35 billion that France spent on its overall financial rescue program and the $133 billion that Germany spent.

Much of the $182 billion in federal aid to AIG – the biggest of the government rescues – went to meet the company’s obligations to its Wall Street trading partners on credit default swaps, a form of insurance against default of securities. The partners included French banks Societe Generale, which received $11.9 billion in AIG money, and BNP Paribas, which got $4.9 billion, and Germany’s Deutsche Bank, $11.8 billion.

Of the 87 banks and financial entities that indirectly benefited from the U.S. aid to AIG, 43 are foreign, according to the report. In addition to France and Germany, they include banks based in Canada, Britain and Switzerland.

In addition to AIG, many of the U.S. banks and automakers that received billions in bailout aid derive a large proportion of their revenue from operations outside the U.S., the report noted.

The watchdog panel was created by Congress to oversee the Treasury Department rescue program that came in at the peak of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. It has said it’s unclear whether U.S. taxpayers will ever fully recoup the cost of the AIG bailout. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that taxpayers will lose $36 billion.

Although the law creating the U.S. rescue program called for Treasury to coordinate its actions with similar efforts by foreign governments, “the global response to the financial crisis unfolded on an … informal, country-by-country basis,” the new report says. “Each individual government made its own decisions based on its evaluation of what was best for its own banking sector and for its own domestic economy.”

The U.S. program wound up injecting capital into around 700 banks, while all other governments combined aided fewer than 50, according to the oversight panel.

At the same time, the report suggests that the Treasury program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, may have played a constructive role.

“It appears that the existence of the TARP might have served to enhance the negotiating position of the U.S. government (at least in a limited way), as it demonstrated the willingness of U.S. officials to be aggressive and forceful in committing a significant amount of resources to confront a deepening crisis,” the report says.

Treasury Department spokesman Mark Paustenbach said the report “shows that Treasury worked effectively with its overseas partners in a number of ways to address the global financial crisis.”

The report says the financial crisis revealed the need for an international plan “to handle the collapse of major, globally significant financial institutions.”

Click here to read the full report

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