[link|http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlow/kudlow072302.asp|He's getting the job done.]

Excerpt:

Harvey Pitt may be the most embattled SEC commissioner in our lifetime. But with this move, he has trumped slow-moving congressional legislation with one of the most draconian new regulations in history. Call it Pitt's revenge.

Signed under oath, these new written statements must be filed on or shortly after August 14, 2002. They will require CEOs and financial chiefs at 947 large companies to swear "to the best of my knowledge" that their financial statements are accurate. Importantly, these execs could face criminal as well as civil liability if regulators find any problems in their statements. The SEC intends to make the certifications available to the public on its website.

I say:

I still think Jonathan Chait had a point, sort of. Just not very much of one. Let's judge this guy by his job performance. And judge his job performance by the tangible results. (After all, we don't want to settle for his "doing a good job" merely in the Clintonain sense.)

Forcing CEO's to tell the truth or go to jail would be a pretty tangible result, in my view.