London's flagship stock exchange suffered its biggest one-day fall in history yesterday - later, the prime minister called for more "responsible" markets.
Gordon Brown has called on stock market investors to show more responsibility, and suggested that they might show better morals, after the FTSE 100 suffered one of its worst days of trading in its 24 year history.
Speaking at the annual dinner of the United Jewish Israel Appeal in London, the prime minister called for the creation of a "good economy", grown by "responsible risk-taking", the BBC reports. In order to bring this about, he said that the UK would work closely with other European countries in order to take tighter control of markets.
The FTSE fell by 391.06 points yesterday to 4589.19, its largest-ever points drop and a decline of 7.85 percent. Continued fears over the stability of the banking system led to investors selling off stocks and moving into safer areas such as gold.
New York's Dow Jones also suffered a terrible day's trading, crashing through the 10,000 barrier to close at 9955.50, 3.58 percent down on the day.
"We believe in markets," Mr Brown said. "We also know that our success as a market economy - and indeed the operation of the market itself - depends upon upholding values which the market alone cannot generate. Successful market economies need trust which can only be built through shared values."
He added: "My values, the values of the country, celebrate hard work, effort, enterprise and responsible risk taking - qualities that markets need to ensure that the rewards that flow are seen to be fair."
