Diplomats and economists are urging world powers to update half-century-old financial rules that helped nations cope with problems after World War II, the Associated Press reported.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University told the U.N. General Assembly Thursday that "this is a global crisis and it requires a global response."
Stiglitz and others called for updating the system created at New Hampshire's Bretton Woods, which established the international monetary protocols governing trade, banking and other financial relations among nations.
U.N. General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann convened a daylong debate on the global financial meltdown.
D'Escoto announced a new U.N. task force headed by Stiglitz will review the global financial system.