<P> Paul Krugman, writing in his New York Times column, stated that "Mr Brown and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer have defined the character of the worldwide rescue effort, with other wealthy nations playing catch - up ." He also stated that "Luckily for the world economy,...Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense,...And they may have shown us the way through this crisis ." </P> <P> The British banking bail - out example was closely followed by the rest of Europe, as well as the U.S Government, who on the 14 October 2008 announced a $250 bn (£ 143bn) Capital Purchase Program to buy stakes in a wide variety of banks in an effort to restore confidence in the sector . The money came from the $700 bn bail - out package approved by U.S. lawmakers earlier that month . </P> <P> A wave of international action to address the financial crisis had at last an effect on stock markets around the world . Although shares in the affected banks fell, the Dow Jones went up by more than 900 points, or 11.1 per cent, while London shares also bounced back, with the FTSE100 Index closing more than 8 per cent higher on the 13 October 2008 . </P> <P> The shares in RBS and Lloyds have now started to be sold off . Labour has criticised the Conservative government for making what is likely to be a loss on the sale of the RBS shares . However the government countered that this will be more than made up for by a profit on the Lloyds shares and that waiting for longer to sell the RBS shares would not necessarily lead to a higher price for them . The loss to the tax payer of the first round of RBS share sell off is stated by the BBC to be £ 1.07 bn compared to when they were sold . </P>

How much money did rbs get from the government