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Action is evident:

White House Says It Expects Deficit to Hit $165 Billion.

And consider the Senate has a cure for corporate malfeasance worse than the disease:

Congress this week is discussing and looking to pass S.2673 which transfers the oversight for corporate accounting to an international foundation that is developing international accounting rules. Its chairman of the Board of Trustees is former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. Trustees include BIS Managing Director Andrew Crockett, the next governor of the Bank of England. In short, the wolves (international bankers) are now chasing the foxes (all those who already have access) to the chicken coop which is the investments and savings of you and me. Sometimes I wish less action from govt.

Beware.

If he doesn't get some charges filed on these guys we can kiss the house and senate goodbye. I think many Americans are getting tired of speeches, they want action

I think you are exactly right. Where the hell is our war on terror? The President came out and gave some great speeches, then we went and bombed the hell out of Afghanistan and defeated the Taliban, even though as far as I know they weren't responsible for the attacks. Osama and his boys get away and we have our leaders virtually promising us another attack worse than 9-11.

OK. Americans have learned to stomach that. But now here comes the President with another "tough" speech, and meanwhile Tyco boy is out yachting, where's Ken Lay? Where's Gary Winnick? They testify before Congress. Then what? It looks like this guy Pitt is set up to be the next Taliban. He didn't actually commit the crimes, but we have to bomb someone. Or maybe I am dead wrong. These are just the perceptions of a typical dumb American.

I'm going to take a more cynical view here. This whole cook the books problem is actually a Godsend for the Democrats. Why? Because even with President Bush's corporate responsibility initiative, we will continue to see more and more companies reveal that their earnings have been overstated, etc. Bush can not control that. And all the punishment in the world for these corporate liars won't bolster a market that is solely running on estimated earnings in the first place.

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.