To the Point

Corporate Crisis: Sticks and Stones or Tough Talk?

Two days after the President-s lecture to Wall Street, the markets are still very shaky. Bristol-Myers Squibb is the latest corporate suspect, under investigation for inflating last year-s sales by a billion dollars. There-s also word that, as a corporate director, Mr. Bush took the same kind of low-interest loans he denounced in Tuesday-s speech. As Congress ponders legislative reforms and the crisis continues to deepen, we talk to investment advisors, state officials and corporate managers about what they-re doing to get corporate America back on the right track. Newsmaker:Big Shift in Iraq Invasion Strategy Last week, the New York Times reported that a -highly evolved- plan for a massive invasion of Iraq, designed to topple President Saddam Hussein, was -working its way through US military channels.- This morning-s USA Today addresses the timing of such an invasion. John Diamond, who wrote today-s story, says the US is searching for -significant provocation- to justify an Iraqi invasion. Reporter-s Notebook: Divide over Arming Pilots Congress, by a margin of 3-to-1, has approved the arming of airline pilots in the cockpits. The idea got a cool reception in the immediate aftermath of September 11 and President Bush is still opposed. Though it sounds like the brainchild of the National Rifle Association, one of the Senate-s most liberal Democrats now says she supports it. The New York Times- Matthew Wald has more on the politics of the highly controversial measure.