Bush Takes Financial Reform Agenda to APEC Forum.

George W. Bush makes his last scheduled trip abroad as U.S. president on Friday, heading to an Asia-Pacific summit where he will seek support for global financial reform and hold talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Experts said the meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru, was unlikely to produce any major breakthroughs, but U.S. officials rejected characterization of the session as a swan song for a lame-duck president with low approval ratings.

"If you look at our response ... to the current crisis, it's 180 degrees in the opposite direction," Freeman told a briefing at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We're lowering interest rates, we're propping up banks and failed corporations ... and we're certainly not talking about curbing deficit spending any time soon."

Read the article