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U.S. President George. W. Bush details a package of policies intended to help struggling U.S. homeowners keep their homes amid fears that the mortgage collapse could spark a further wave of defaults and foreclosures. U.S. President George W. Bush tried on Friday (August 31, 2007) to calm financial market turmoil from the credit crisis by announcing proposals intended to prevent homeowners from defaulting on risky mortgages. Rising U.S. defaults on so-called subprime mortgages to less credit-worthy borrowers have caused volatility in financial markets around the world and raised concerns that the U.S. economy could fall into recession. In trying to soothe those worries, Bush said the U.S. economy was healthy enough to weather the credit crisis and that the subprime market problems represented only a "modest" part of the economy. But he emphasized that it was not the federal government's job to bail out the mortgage lending industry, a comment that caused U.S. stock prices to pare gains. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke echoed similar sentiments at a central bankers' symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Bernanke's speech spurred speculation for a benchmark interest rate cut next month. "Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke today was really pretty direct in saying that this problem that started in the sub-prime sector has become a contagion that is breathing into higher value loans in the prime sector and beyond," said Jared Bernstein of Economic Policy Institute. Bernstein moni...