The stock market rallies almost 450 points today, but will it be enough to take the heat off Dubya?
Tag: Enron
There He Goes Again.
As GOP polls predict considerable electoral fallout from Enrongate, Dubya plans to regain the political initiative during the August congressional recess. Uh-oh.
Out of touch.
On a day which saw the stock market drop below 8000, Dubya (according to the Standard & Poors index, the worst President in 75 years) declares “the future’s gonna be bright.” Oh, good…I feel better already. As Time noted yesterday, “the President and congress appear to be zealously attacking corporate abuses the way Pilgrims would a dance hall. But get past the reformist posturing, and the proposed new laws add up to half-measures.
The Next to Fall?
The plot thickens…just when the stock market really doesn’t need any more bad news, turns out Citigroup helped Enron evade the law to clear $125 million in debt. Shameful…struggle to get by, and Citibank screws you with exorbitant credit interest rates. Live on the high hog, and they cut you an (illegal) sweetheart deal. Update: J.P. Morgan is in the mix too.
I’ll trade you my Ebbers rookie card for a Waksal…
Corporate Scandal Trading Cards…collect them all!
Shrinking Coattails.
In the wake of the administration’s corporate shadiness, GOP candidates run away from Dubya and his vice-president.
The Road to Perdition.
NYT editorialist Frank Rich deftly skewers Dubya yet again. “For [Bush’s] first pitch, he appeared against a blue background emblazoned with the repeated legend ‘Corporate Responsibility.’ Next came a red backdrop, with ‘Strengthening Our Economy’ as the double-vision-inducing slogan. What will be strike three – black-and-white stripes and ‘Dick Cheney Is Not a Crook’? Maybe this rah-rah technique helped boost the numbers back when George W. Bush was head cheerleader in prep school. But he’s not at Andover anymore. Where his father’s rhetoric gave us a thousand points of light, his lopped a thousand points off the Dow.”
The People Have Spoken.
According to two recent polls, a majority of Americans think (a) Bush is owned by Corporate America and (b) Gore-Lieberman should not run again in 2004. Looks like the electorate is batting 1000 this morning.
Cheney’s Harken.
Lot of Enrongate coverage today, I know…but I’ve been out of it for a few days. Here’s a good recap on Cheney’s Halliburton shadiness.
Rescue attempts.
While Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan tries to assuage the market (something Dubya is seemingly incapable of), the Senate and House pass measures to stifle corporate malfeasance (and the stock market free-fall), thanks to a Republican “deathbed conversion.”