James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
ROBERT GIBBS: How is everyone?
[reporter]: Good. And you?
GIBBS: I'm good.
[reporter]: Just like a daily tracking poll. (Laughter.) Hopping up and down.
GIBBS: Yes, I go up and down. Yes, ma'am.
[reporter]: I wanted to ask about the meeting with Gordon Brown. He had said before he came that he was interested in reaching agreement with the President. Can you talk now that they're more into the meeting and things are over with, what they may or may not have agreed to?
GIBBS: I have not gotten a full readout, and obviously a number of the things that they were scheduled -- and did discuss -- be it, as they talked about in the Oval Office when you were there, Jennifer, a financial framework to address the financial system as it exists now, not in the past; Afghanistan obviously will be a major topic in April at the NATO summit, as well as issues like climate change -- obviously I think they're in agreement on a number of those issues. Without anything specific coming out of -- I'll get from our guys a little bit broader download on that.
But I think as I talked about yesterday, what they were seeking to talk about and discuss are -- I mean, I think there's a commonality in many of the issues that each of the two countries faces right now. I think if you pick up the newspaper here or there you find many of the same problems and challenges facing our banking systems and our economic systems. Obviously, as we talked about, Afghanistan and climate change are also topics, among other things, that they wanted to discuss. I'll try to get a more full download -- fuller download for you guys on exactly --
[reporter]: Does the President think it's doable or even advisable to have the same banking standards all across the world, like Gordon Brown has said he wants?
GIBBS: Well, I think -- and again, and I've made mention of this many times, that the President last year as the economy slipped, especially in the September and October time frames -- that unless everyone acted at the same time to address many of the problems that the economy faced as part of a global recession, that it would be hard to -- hard to get a coordinated recovery.
I think we've certainly seen that if we don't have some baseline of banking and financial regulations, that, because money can be transferred around the world so quickly, it's important to have a baseline financial understanding of what can and can't happen.
Obviously many of the things that -- many of the challenges that we face are challenges that they are -- many of the European countries face. And I think that's going to be part of the continued discussion. This was the fourth meeting with a head of state for a country that represents those G20 economies in the lead-up to that April summit, which I think the President believes is very important for not only sustained economic growth here, but ensuring that we do have some of those rules of the road internationally to prevent what's happened in the past.
Yes, sir.
[reporter]: Robert, the President mentioned today that price- earnings ratios for some companies made stocks potentially a good deal. Is there any cheerleading going on right now from the President? Is that a strategy?
And secondly, in an unrelated topic, can you tell us if the President and the Prime Minister discussed the need for other European countries to contribute more to Afghanistan?
GIBBS: Let me check specifically on the second one. In terms of the first one, I mean, I think that the President has, on many occasions, talked about the fact that brighter days for our economy are ahead if we take important steps and make important decisions now about addressing many of the problems that -- and challenges that we face.
I don't think that was what he -- what he did today was markedly different than what he's done in the past, in order to demonstrate again that with the right steps, whether it's addressing recovery and reinvestment as we've done, a housing plan, a financial stability plan, financial reregulation, that we can take important steps to get our economy growing again, create the jobs that we know we need, and make the investments that have to be made and have long been ignored as part of sustained economic growth.
[reporter]: But he said -- I mean, he wasn't just talking about the economy, which are indeed things that he said before. He basically said, stocks look like they're good deals.
GIBBS: I will ask him if he's got any particular tips for you, Jeff. Maybe I should have cornered him and gotten a few of my own.