The stock market rallies almost 450 points today, but will it be enough to take the heat off Dubya?
Category: Enron, Etc.
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.”
Stand by your man.
Dubya defends Cheney against charges of Halliburton shadiness.
The Ivy Cradle.
Much as the Bushes have derided Eastern elitist universities during their presidencies, it turns out Harvard kept Harken afloat during Dubya’s stint there. In related news, George Soros – another big Harken investor at the time – admits to David Corn he was “buying political influence” when he gave money to Harken. So much for Dubya’s business savvy.
Corporate Socialism.
Ralph Nader weighs in on the corporatization of America in the Post. “At stake is whether civic values of our democratic society will prevail over invasive commercial values.”