RatcliffeBlog - Mitch Thinking Out Loud

We need corporate oversight, not...

We need corporate oversight, not war, to rebuild the economy

The New York Times reports that President Bush has authorized a 27% reduction in the new funding for corporate oversight he approved with great fanfare and moralizing about 90 days ago. Claiming the the War on Terror and Homeland Security require funding more urgently than the clean up of the vast corporate scandals, his administration was apparently never serious about corporate ethics. It is hanging Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt out to dry:

Harvey L. Pitt, the commission's chairman, has acknowledged through a spokesman that the administration's level of financing will not allow it to undertake important initiatives.

The White House has put Mr. Pitt in the awkward position of having to choose between Congressional Democrats who want a larger budget and administration officials who want less.

Many wondered why Pitt was retained earlier this year and it is obvious now that it was because the President intends to blame him for failing to "increase investor confidence" with a smaller than expected budget. Investors aren't going to rush into the market because a war changes the economic fortunes of a few defense and aerospace firms, or even if oil falls to $10 a barrel, because they have been so badly burned by un-policed executives.