With every new instance of fraud, more shocks happen to Wall Street. And with each one of those shocks comes a little chunk out of consumer confidence- which means the economy will continue to take a hit through the election. And who do you think is going to try and spin this for all it's worth? The Democrats.
My knowledge in the finance area is pretty limited. So I want to ask freepers a question. Considerig the scenario above, what do you think is the best strategy for the Bush adminstration to combat the likely book-cooking revelations, and to bolster consumer confidence? A tax cut would be nice, but that simply won't help a consumer's perception of the market or the economy.
See my posts in #37 and #43 for the economic/political side of it.
The "corporate coruption" side of things is stickier (not in theory; only implementation). It requires starting from the following two premises:
1) One of the few legitimate purposes of government is to ensure that fraudulent business practices are prosecuted, therby insuring a free marketplace wherby consumers and investors can make informed choices that are in their best interest.
2) As corrupt as corporate America is, it pales in comparison to the corruption in the government.
Based on that, the gov't should aggressively prosecute those engaging in fraud both outside the gov't and within. Make a list of everything that is a federal crime (or covered by a regulation), and cross off those laws/regulations which are unconstitutional (such as gun laws), those which the states could handle better, those which are simply too complicated for anyone to understand, and those which just don't make sense.
"Interstate fraud" would be one of the few items left on that list. Take the massive federal bureaucracy, reduce it by 80%, and have the remaining 20% enforce the fraud statutes.
Cleaning up gov't corruption is more difficult, and it starts with the gov't coming clean about OKC, TWA 800, etc.... ; and making their agents accountable for their actions.