Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy said global political leaders are seriously considering the idea of closing the world’s financial markets while they “rewrite the rules of international finance.”

Bloomberg, a business news-wire service, quotes Berlusconi as saying after a cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy, “the idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed. A solution to the financial crisis can’t just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped as much as 8.1 percent in early trading and pared most of those losses after Berlusconi’s comments.

Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers are holding a summit in Washington D.C. today, and will remain in town for the World Bank and International Monetary fund meetings this weekend. European Union leaders might gather in Paris on Oct. 12, three days before a scheduled summit in Brussels. Berlusconi hinted today that the Group of Eight leaders may hold a crisis meeting in the coming days.

Berlusconi didn’t provide details about what kind of rules leaders were looking to change, except to claim that leaders are talking about a new Bretton Woods.”

According to Bloomberg, “the Bretton Woods Agreements were adopted to rebuild the international economic system after World War II. in a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The aim of the agreements was to establish a monetary management system, initially pegging currencies to gold. The IMF was set up later to help manage the international financial system.”

To read the entire article from Bloomberg, link here:

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