McCain says Fed should stop government bailouts

GREEN BAY: John McCain says the Federal Reserve needs to stop bailing out failed financial institutions.

Addressing a business group in Wisconsin, the Republican presidential hopeful said the Fed should get back to what he called "its core business of responsibly managing our money supply and inflation."

The Fed engineered an $85 billion takeover of insurance giant AIG this week, one of a series of failures of major financial companies that have rocked Wall Street. The government seized control of housing giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae earlier this month.

The Arizona senator reiterated his call to fire S-E-C chairman Chris Cox, saying there needed to be greater accountability in Washington.