To the Point

Corporate Reform and the Return to a Gilded Age

With voters still outraged about business leaders accused of looting their companies and destroying the retirement plans of millions of small investors, Congress adjourned without enacting many reforms and without funding some of those it did approve. Even Fortune magazine has criticized Congress and the Bush administration for failing to deliver enough reform to restore the confidence of investors. A massive shift in wealth affords a select few the power to get whatever they want, creating a gap between rich and poor as great as that of the 1920-s and threatening the very existence of the middle class. We recall Congress- promise to clean up American business and consider the prospects for corporate reform with economists, a former member of the President-s Council of Economic Advisors, an advocate of corporate social responsibility and an editor of Barron's, a national economic weekly. Newsmaker: Pentagon Timeline Responds to UN Diplomacy President Bush is reportedly impatient over the lack of progress in getting a new UN Security Council resolution cracking down on Iraq. One issue has been the weather in that desert country, which might impact when a war could be fought. Bradley Graham, Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post, analyzes the Council-s progress and the US military buildup in the Gulf. Reporters Notebook: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana Cuba-s Fidel Castro is now 76 years old, and still in charge, despite the fact that his country-s economy is collapsing around him. Anne Louis Bardach is a prize-winning journalist who has covered Cuba for 10 years. Her latest book, Cuba Confidential, explores the troubled waters surrounding US-Cuban relations since Castro came to power.Read an excerpt from the book.