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Discusses how many people are against United States President George W. Bush's Ownership plan for Social Security. Desire of people to have a safety net when it comes to retirement income and health insurance; Need for the government to offer health insurance to everyone; Description of Bush's plan for Social Security, which would allow citizens to divert part of their payroll taxes into stocks and bonds; View of Americans of Wall Street and investing risk; Lack of enthusiasm for this plan.

Comments that as investigators look into the accounting misstatements of American International Group Inc. (AIG), it is becoming clear that regulators failed to detect lapses. Failure of federal and state regulators, as well as outside auditors, to identify accounting fraud; Defense of regulators that insurers lie to cover up fraud, making detection a difficult task; Analysis of the AIG investigation. INSET: Who Should Watch the Insurers?.

Discusses the growing scandal at American International Group Inc. (AIG), which began as an investigation into two reinsurance transactions, and resulted in the resignation of chairman and chief executive, Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg. How AIG admitted to a broad range of improper accounting; Details of the company's accounting issues; Investigation of the company by state and federal officials; Reaction of AIG to the investigations, including the launch of its own internal investigations and the appointment of AIG executive Martin J. Sullivan as the new CEO. INSETS: Long Shadow;Many Ways To Gild Earnings.

Profiles President George W. Bush and the challenges he faces in his campaign for re-election in November. Dissolving public support for the U.S. occupation of Iraq; Struggles of the U.S. economic to create jobs; Charges from John Kerry that he is out of touch with the economic pressures buffetting the middle classes; Expectation that Bush will unveil his second-term agenda at the Republican National Convention in New York this week with a focus on the idea of an "Ownership Society," in which Americans would be empowered to save and invest more; Comparison with the expanded government safety net that Kerry proposes to help strapped workers; Discussion of Bush's views on taxation; Details of Bush's proposals towards creating an Ownership Society. INSET: PIECE OF THE ROCK VS. THE BIG SAFETY NET.

Reports on presidential candidate John Kerry's strategy for winning the election. Lack of reliance on anti-Bush fervor; Description his formula for growth, redirecting money towards "human capital"; Potential for higher taxes on affluent investors; Concern among economists that hitting up the rich to help the middle class will harm long-term growth; Plan to expand health coverage while driving down premiums; Focus on bolstering public schools, hiking teacher salaries, and offering tuition help for families; Proposal of a new tax credit for hiring by manufacturers, small businesses, and companies affected by outsourcing; More. INSETS: KERRYNOMICS: A SAMPLING;Kerry's Key Domestic Advisers.

As election 2004 heads into the home stretch amid signs of another photo finish, strategists for both major parties say the race will likely be determined in pockets such as the thriving Interstate 4 corridor that links Tampa and Orlando. With an electorate polarized by Bush-besotted Republicans and Bush-loathing Democrats, a small group of two-income households--economically squeezed and strongly pro-military--holds the key to the White House. George W. Bush and John Kerry are lavishing an enormous amount of time and money on New Mexico, Missouri, and Oregon -- and blitzing Ohio and Pennsylvania. Florida, once part of the solidly Democratic South, is now a crucial swing state. America in 2004 is confronted with profound questions of war and peace, and there is a stark contrast between the GOP vision of an entrepreneurial "ownership society" and the Democrats' new middle-class safety net. Why in a land that extols the ideal of equality are some votes more equal than others? A key reason is the unusual way we pick our President. Americans do not directly tap a leader -- we vote for state electors, super-representatives who select a winner by casting ballots in the Electoral College. The location of the key swing voters also helps shape our political discourse. Ever wonder why there's so much talk about the decline of U.S. manufacturing? One reason is that seven industrial battleground states with 79 electoral votes will likely tip the election. Meanwhile, states with predictable partisan voting, such as New York (Democratic) and Utah (Republican) have seen their influence shrink. That's why Kerry won't be spending much time by the Great Salt Lake this year. But by focusing on the Gray Zone, the major parties are reinforcing the cycle of uncompetitiveness in Red and Blue states. And indifference at the Presidential level hurts each party's chances in local contests.

This article discusses new anti-terror tools under development by the technology industry in the United States. Half a billion foreign visitors cross America's borders, land at her airports, and dock at her harbors each year. Imagine trying to weed out the criminals and terrorists while keeping track of everyone else as they vacation, conduct business, enroll in college--and try to drop out of sight once they've overstayed their visa. The Bermuda technology consulting company, with U.S. headquarters in Reston, Va., will design a system for high-tech passports and visas, plus a database to keep track of when and where travelers cross the border. Tally it all up and government and private-sector security spending will hit $130 billion to $180 billion a year by 2010, up from $65 billion in 2003, calculates consultant Homeland Security Research Corp. in San Jose, Calif. Wall Street is anticipating a flood of business: A 13-stock index of publicly traded homeland-security companies tracked by Memphis brokerage Morgan Keegan & Co. has already risen 20% since the start of the year, vs. The Accenture contract, for a system dubbed U.S.-VISIT, is the biggest issued by the DHS to date.

Looks at the prosecution's case against Jeff Skilling of Enron Corporation. Belief that it will be hard for the Justice Department to punish the former CEO as he was able to keep his fingerprints off the evidence; Timeline of actions taken by Skilling to protect himself before the collapse of the company; Ability to have walked away from the ruins without a trace; No evidence to link Skilling with the wrongdoing at the company; Need for the investors who lost all to see the top men punished; Thoughts on whether or not he can get a fair trial anywhere in the U.S.; Focus of the charges which are expected to be securities fraud; Forecast that the trial will be one of shared blows but no knockouts. INSET: Countdown to Disaster.

Discusses key issues concerning retirement planning in the U.S. in 2003. Impact of new tax laws and an improving stock market on returns from 401(k) and other retirement accounts; Analysis of pertinent topics and relevant issues; Implications for retirement planning. INSETS: Modest Expectations;How Annuities Can Help;New Rules of Thumb.

Up and down Wall Street, analysts and investment bankers, under the watchful eye of management, turned the business of investing into a crass "heads we win, tails you lose" proposition for investors. To make sure analysts kept up the ruse, their bosses paid them according to how much new investment-banking business they attracted. And to reward execs for sending them business, bankers "virtually bribed" CEOs, as one regulator put it, with shares of hot initial public offerings. Such corrupt relationships helped drive the stock market to absurd heights in the late 1990s. And it fueled a vast transfer of wealth from investors to Wall Street bankers and their CEO clients. Retail brokers, whose clients were duped by the dishonest research, complained loudly, but their pleas were ignored all the way up the chain of command. No one did anything because everyone in the game profited. Everyone, that is, but retail investors, who didn't know the rules. Now they do. The $1.4 billion settlement between state and federal securities regulators and 10 of the largest Wall Street firms is meant to ensure that investors are never again relegated to the bottom of the food chain. Regulators hope to restore the integrity of research by forcing structural reforms on the Terrible Ten. The pact also aims to boost the sophistication of individual investors by requiring the firms to provide free copies of independently produced analysis and to support an investor-education fund. And it hopes to make research more transparent by requiring firms to publish their analysts' stock-picking track records. Real change may depend on regulators making good on promises to bring future cases against the Wall Street executives and managers who oversaw research and banking -- including the CEOs. So far, only two individuals -- former analysts Jack B. Grubman of Salomon Smith Barney and Henry R. Blodget of Merrill Lynch -- have been punished. INSET: GRADING THE DEAL.

Offers personal financial advice on retirement. Impact of financial trouble in the United States on retirees; Workers' expectations for investment returns; Exposure of employees to employer stock; Tips for adjusting one's investment portfolio to minimize harm to one's retirement funds. INSET: WHAT A DIFFERENCE A BEAR MARKET MAKES.

Examines the challenges in successfully punishing corporate corruption in the U.S., in light of the conviction of Arthur Andersen LLP for obstruction of justice; Difficulty for prosecutors in educating jurors about sophisticated financial concepts, finding an inside whistle-blower who can recount key conversations, and proving an executive willfully broke the law; Issue of executives hiring top lawyers, who can create reasonable doubt through blaming other employees; Outlook. INSET: The Legal Road Ahead.

Reports on the efforts to reform corporate governance. Efforts of institutional shareholders to target companies on executive compensation issues; Plans by stock exchanges to force corporations to be more accountable to shareholders; Hopes of growth investors to have companies pay dividends and change their stock options policies; Decision by investment banks to issue more downgrades of stock and cleaner balance sheets, realizing the impact on mergers. INSETS: Getting Tough;Investors Are Still Spooked.

Focuses on the crisis of corporate governance in the U.S., in light of resignations of various executives amidst allegations of greed and questionable accounting practices. Criticism of corporations for lobbying against reform, when changes are needed if the businesses hope to continue with a free-market economic system based on the participation of investors without heavy regulations; Reasons for the deterioration in corporate ethics; Outlook for the reinstatement of integrity in business. INSET: Shining A New Light on Earnings.