America has followed in Britain's footsteps by announcing the partial nationalisation of its leading banks, bringing the global effort to halt the world's economic crisis to almost £3,000,000,000,000 (£3 trillion).

US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson said he would plough $250billion (£143billion) into the country's biggest banks in an attempt to safeguard the world's leading economy from total collapse.

In addition, the U.S. government said it would temporarily guarantee $1.5 trillion (£856 billion) in new senior debt issued by banks, as well as insure $500 billion (£285 billion) in deposits in non-interest accounts, mainly used by businesses.

All told, the potential cost to the government of the latest bailout package comes to $2.25 trillion (£1.28 trillion), triple the size of the original $700 billion (£400 billion) rescue package, which centered on buying distressed assets from banks.

The package follows similar deals in Britain (£500billion) and the EU (£1.16 trillion), bring the total world package to a staggering £2.94 trillion.

Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are each expected to get $25billion. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are expected to be handed $10billion.

President George Bush defended the partial nationalisation, saying it will help restore stability to the banking sector and preserve free markets.

Full article here