Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Sunday

What Can Bush Do to Restore Investor Confidence?

Aired July 21, 2002 - 18:04   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The stock markets reopen tomorrow morning as normal, but there is nothing normal about the nervousness on Wall Street after last week's market freefall. What, if anything, can President Bush do about the crisis in investor confidence? So let's check in with CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux on this -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: (AUDIO GAP) and it really faces a lot of tough questions about the stock market (AUDIO GAP) Americans who own some sort of stock in the market, everybody wants to know when is this going to change? (AUDIO GAP).

The goal, the strategy, has been really to emphasize the positive economic indicators, looking at low interest rates, low inflation and some of the economic growth that is occurring. But analysts are saying that just take a look at the last couple of weeks. We have seen that the stock market has decreased some 14 percent, that this kind of presidential cheerleading really isn't boosting investor confidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's nothing Mr. -- President Bush can do, there's nothing Congress can do to help this market. The only thing that can help this market is for investors to regain confidence in the stock market.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Now, of course, that is the big question: How do investors regain confidence in the markets? Analysts agree it can be determined by a number of things, perhaps even revelations of more corporate abuse, or events in the Middle East, or even perhaps another terrorist attack, if that should happen, that all of these things could really make the stock market swing either way. Some analysts thinking that those numbers are going to dip down first before it rebounds -- Carol.

LIN: Suzanne, I've got to apologize to our viewers because we were having some trouble with our audio in the beginning, so forgive me if you've already answered this question, but how soon does the White House see a corporate responsibility bill being passed on the Hill and how much do they think that's going to help investor confidence here? MALVEAUX: Well, they really hope that that's going to happen before August recess. That is the goal. And it could happen, actually, before August recess, but they have to go into the conference and actually iron out some of the details, some of the points of contention. But they are hoping to get that in the president's hands. They really want to sign that as quickly as possible.

There's concern among Democrats as well Republicans. They do not want to have this issue stick with them for the November midterm elections. They want to make sure that they've got some sort of corporate responsibility that has been signed into action so that really neither group can pin it on themselves or on the other, and the voters will not necessarily hold that against them.

LIN: I'm wondering how carefully President Bush is weighing his public appearances and what he says and how he says it. I mean, all eyes in the White House have to be on that opening bell tomorrow and how the president may or may not respond to it.

MALVEAUX: That is absolutely right. They're going to be looking at those numbers, they're going to look at the stock market.

And expect the president really to take his message on the road. We saw this the last couple of weeks when he was in Birmingham, Alabama; we saw it on Wall Street. The message falling rather flat after the Wall Street speech. They decided to go ahead and give it another go in Alabama. But expect for him to also talk about that continuously, that investors need to have confidence in the markets, to point out those positive economic indicators. He's going to take his message on the road, and we expect that it's going to be for weeks to come.

LIN: All right. Thank you very much, Suzanne Malveaux, live at the White House tonight.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com