NBC Nightly News - 2009-02-23 - 1 of 2

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] On our broadcast tonight, stress test.

[0:02] The government takes a good hard look at

[0:04] some big banks as the president vows to

[0:06] control a runaway budget while inviting

[0:09] Republicans to the White House to talk

[0:11] cooperation. Meltdown making sense of

[0:14] this financial crisis. Our special

[0:16] series begins tonight with a good hard

[0:18] look at how we got where we are right

[0:20] now. An enchanted evening for the out of

[0:23] nowhere best picture at last night's

[0:25] Academy Awards. and coming clean. Have

[0:28] you noticed how dirty the airlines have

[0:30] gotten? Apparently, some of the airlines

[0:32] have noticed as well. Also tonight, how

[0:35] soon will treating the flu really be a

[0:38] oneshot deal? Nightly News begins now.

[0:41] [music]

[0:44] From NBC News World [music] Headquarters

[0:47] in New York, this is NBC Nightly News

[0:50] with Brian Williams.

[0:52] Good evening and once again this Monday

[0:54] night, our news is dominated by the

[0:56] economy. The federal government is now

[0:58] checking on the health of some big banks

[1:01] and could still buy up an even bigger

[1:03] part of one of the giants. The president

[1:05] made it official today. All this

[1:07] spending has to come from somewhere. And

[1:10] he invited Republicans over, including

[1:12] his former rival, to make that very

[1:14] point. But as he spoke, there was no

[1:16] saving the stock market. The Dow was

[1:19] down to 1997 levels today. NASDAQ down,

[1:23] S&P down to 97 levels as well. And so we

[1:27] begin here tonight with CNBC's Trish

[1:29] Regan at the New York Stock Exchange.

[1:31] Trish, good evening.

[1:32] >> Good evening, Brian. Another rough day

[1:34] for traders here on the floor of the

[1:36] exchange. With the indices hitting new

[1:38] bare market lows, there is a belief

[1:40] right now that the government is going

[1:42] to have to take bigger stakes in the

[1:45] banks if it hopes to stabilize the

[1:47] financial system.

[1:51] On the floor of the New York Stock

[1:52] [music] Exchange today, more questions

[1:54] surrounding the fate of one of the

[1:55] country's largest banks. Cityroup is in

[1:58] talks with federal officials for the

[2:00] government to increase its nearly 8%

[2:02] stake in the bank to roughly 40%. With

[2:05] city's stock price near an 18-year low

[2:07] today, the government tried to calm

[2:09] investors, issuing a joint statement

[2:11] from multiple agencies, including the US

[2:13] Treasury, the FDIC, and the Federal

[2:16] Reserve, that promised to preserve the

[2:18] viability of systemically important

[2:21] financial institutions.

[2:23] It could mean the government will exert

[2:25] control over many banks in the coming

[2:27] months.

[2:28] >> You don't want the government

[2:29] controlling anything. You want the

[2:30] markets dictating price. You want the

[2:32] markets dictating it. You want supply,

[2:34] demand dictating everything.