Strong and solid?

Bush's term for today's financial markets. Is this another oxymoron term like compassionate conservative? So the housing market collapsing with the subprime disaster, the dollar falling, the trade deficit to China, the hemorrhaging of money to the endless Iraq war, the tax cuts for the rich, the growing gulf between rich and poor ... all these are translated by Georgie as strong and solid?

So. How's the rest of the world taking this?:

LONDON (AP) -- Stocks fell sharply worldwide Monday following declines on Wall Street last week amid investor pessimism over the U.S. government's stimulus plan to prevent a recession.

U.S. markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but the downbeat mood from last week's market declines there circled through Europe, Asia and the Americas. Britain's benchmark FTSE-100 slumped 5.5 percent to 5,578.20, France's CAC-40 Index tumbled 6.8 percent to 4,744.15, and Germany's blue-chip DAX 30 plunged 7.2 percent to 6,790.19.

In Asia, India's benchmark stock index tumbled 7.4 percent, while Hong Kong's blue-chip Hang Seng index plummeted 5.5 percent to 23,818.86, its biggest percentage drop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index on the Toronto Stock Exchange fell 4.8 percent. Brazilian stocks plunged 6.6 percent on the main index of Sao Paulo's Bovespa exchange, and Argentina's benchmark Merval index fell 6.3 percent to close under 1,900 for the first time since August 2006.

Investors dumped shares because they were skeptical that an economic stimulus plan President Bush announced Friday would shore up the economy that has been battered by problems in its housing and credit markets. The plan, which requires approval by Congress, calls for about $145 billion worth of tax relief to encourage consumer spending.

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"It's another horrible day," said Francis Lun, a general manager at Fulbright Securities in Hong Kong. "Today it's because of disappointment that the U.S. stimulus (package) is too little, too late and investors feel it won't help the economy recover."

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"People are certainly nervous about a potential recession in the U.S. spilling over to the rest of the world," said David Cohen, Director of Asian Economic Forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore.

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Investors took cues from the negative reaction to the president's plan on Wall Street on Friday, when the Dow Jones industrial average slid 0.5 percent to 12,099.30, bringing its loss for the year so far to nearly 9 percent.

Traders also have shrugged off assurances from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the U.S. central bank is ready to act aggressively - which means a likely big interest rate cut later this month - to help the sagging economy.

So nice to see Georgie's outreach doesn't just affect the United States....

Update: Germany:

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - With its its exposure to U.S. sub-prime mortgages and unauthorized stock market trades, the German bank WestLB announced Monday it is expecting roughly 1 billion euro ($1.47 billion) in losses for 2007.

WestLB's announcement was made after German financial watchdog Bafin and the country's central bank, the Bundesbank, attended an emergency meeting with the bank's owners aimed at helping the financial institution stabilize.

The expected billion-dollar loss affirms effects of the subprime-triggered credit markets crisis on Germany which has almost plunged into bankruptcy two of its banks while affecting many more.