"A lot of people are worried that the Fed is going to say 'Enough is enough, we're going to stop printing money. We're going to stop buying back debt,'" Flynn said.

The World Bank said Monday that the global economy would shrink by 2.9 percent this year, much worse than its March prediction for a contraction of 1.7 percent.

"The global recession has deepened," the bank said, adding that economic damage to developing countries "has been much deeper and broader than previous crises."

Geopolitical turmoil over the weekend and on Monday in oil rich regions has done little to stop the slide that began early Friday. Iran carried out its threat to crush opposition protests over its disputed presidential election.

"A year ago the political turmoil in Iran would have sent oil prices through the roof ... but these days markets are calmer," said KBC Market Services in Britain. "This is a situation that needs to be watched closely as Iran exports about 2.2 million barrels a day of crude oil to some significant places — Japan and China stand out."

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for July delivery was down 6.47 cents at settle at $1.8597 a gallon and heating oil lost 5.92 cents to settle at $1.7275 a gallon. Natural gas for July delivery fell 9.9 cents to settle at $3.907 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell $2.21 to settle at $66.98 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, Alex Kennedy in Singapore and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

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