Today President Bush will meet with for the first time a group of top government financial officials that was created in 1988 to prevent stock market crashes.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto this morning gave some interesting background on the meeting.

The president's Working Group on Financial Markets was created in 1988 in response to the 1987 stock market crash.

Its purpose is "to take a look at what can be done to prevent market disruptions," Mr. Fratto said.

The group is led by Treasury Secretary Paulson and is composed of Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Cox, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Lukken.

Mr. Fratto said Mr. Bush has not met with this group before because he has been regularly briefed by Mr. Paulson.

The meetings "haven't been necessary before," Mr. Fratto said.

Now, however, the U.S. economy is facing increasing pressure on multiple fronts: the housing crisis, the rising price of oil, and the falling strength of the dollar.

Still, Mr. Fratto said the meeting had been scheduled a few weeks ago and was not a "reaction" to the current financial situation.

— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times