Friday Notes
Do we need an office of Homeland Accounting? Arguably, the accounting scandals thus far (and there have been fewer than 10, and fully half of those have direct links to people employed by the current administration) have cost investors as much as 9/11. And the administration is notably less active in pursuing the accounting problem than the terrorism problem. It's probably just more comfortable using the tools for the latter than the former.
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The administration announces another upward revision in the deficit for the current fiscal year, but promises that we'll be back in balance by 2005. Increasingly, It’s not this administration’s fiscal deficit that I’m concerned about.
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Some market commentators have been intimating that the slide in the market can be partially attributed to the prospect of Democrats picking up a majority in the house and a bigger majority in the Senate, as a result of the continuing business scandals. I think that this is a time when the markets themselves, to say nothing of the voters, would welcome more regulation to return confidence to American business. There can be no greater indication of that than to watch the action in the markets during and after Bush's speech on Tuesday. During the speech, the market was flat, but directly after it finished -- as it sunk in that, unlike TR, Bush chose to talk loudly and brandish a small stick-- the market tanked. For days. Verdict rendered, the market has spoken.
11:29:18 AM 
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