Egregio Professor Pelanda,

 E' con rinnovata speranza che ho deciso di scriverLe per condividere con
 Lei le idee e gli spunti "politically uncorrected" che liberi pensatori
 nel mondo sentono il dovere di esprimere.

 Con l'articolo che di seguito trascrivo, apparso nell'edizione di oggi del
 Washington Times, desidero iniziare con Lei un proficuo scambio di idee
 e di proposte che possano trovare una eco anche tra i visitatori del Suo
 sito.

 Sperando di farLe cosa gradita, La saluto cordialmente.

 Piermario Croce
 Torino, Italia

 -------------------------
 THE BIDEN-HATCH AMENDMENT

 In an amendment co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Joe Biden Jr. and
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Senate is piggy-backing on a recent Securities and
 Exchange Commission (SEC) directive. Beginning Aug. 14, the SEC will
require the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of any company
with at least $1.2 billion in annual revenue to personally attest to, and
assume personal liability for, the accuracy of the financial statements their
company submit to the SEC. The Biden-Hatch amendment will make this bad idea worse
 by requiring a company's chairman of the board to also certify the
statements.

 There are short-term and long-term problems with this approach. In the
short run, it is difficult to imagine a greater incentive for corporations to
 intentionally lowball their earnings. To be on the "safe side," that would
 include legitimate earnings. The result, of course, will be increases in
 corporate price-earnings ratios, a development that could easily encourage
 a further downward-spiraling in stock prices.
 In the long run, given that the False Statement Act already requires such
 submissions to be truthful, the seeming redundancy of both the SEC and the

 Senate versions appears tailor-made to appeal to one of the Democratic
Party's most politically generous groups, the tort bar. The required signed
statement, which, interestingly enough, the SEC had to correct shortly after the
agency designed it, contains several weasel phrases ? "to the best of my
knowledge" and "a material fact" ? that tort lawyers will exploit with the fervor
they have displayed while chasing ambulances. Indeed, is there any doubt that
 tort lawyers will seek to do to America's capitalistic system ? the
greatest creator of wealth in history ? what they have done to OB/GYN doctors and
 patients?
 Now, unless a CEO or chairman is thoroughly steeped in the arcane minutiae
 of corporate accounting ? a category that would exclude Bill Gates, Andy
 Grove and other corporate titans who have generated incalculable wealth
 exploiting their entrepreneurial-engineering instincts and backgrounds ?
 the CEO and chairman will surely be hostage to their accounting staffs.
 How much entrepreneurial energy will be sacrificed as a CEO or chairman
 immerses himself in accounting complexities?
 Moreover, consider the bipartisan analysis of Kevin Hassett and Peter
Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute and Robert Shapiro, formerly of the
 Democratic Leadership Council, who warned recently that "significantly
increas[ing] the exposure of firms and particularly their managers to litigation" will
 "likely impose significant new costs on American firms with little likely
 benefit." They argue that requiring CEOs, CFOs and chairmen to certify
that the financial statements "fairly present, in all material respects, the
 operations and financial condition of the public company" would "expose
 firms subject to changing market conditions to new liability exposure.
When an unforeseen material event occurs," they note, "the plaintiffs lawyers
 ? with the benefit of hindsight ? will be able to argue that the previous
 certification was false in its claim." Who doubts that this is precisely
 what will happen? And, as this process surely evolves, how many highly
qualified people will be discouraged from accepting senior executive positions? And
 what price will that exact on the economy?
 Finally, it is bemusing ?at the least ? that Congress, which refuses to
 honestly address, or even acknowledge, the trillions of dollars of
unfunded liabilities in the so-called trust funds for Social Security and Medicare,
 assumes it is capable of devising complex, efficient solutions enabling
 corporations to honestly address business problems about which so many in
 Congress know so little.