Confronting the accounting scandals that have crippled investor confidence, President Bush called for a crackdown on corporate wrongdoing, saying the nation's economy and financial systems depend on it. Some of the proposals made were:

• Don't make assumptions about a person's willingness to go, and keep asking even if the answer is no the first time.
• Lengthen jail time for criminal fraud by corporate officers and directors, doubling the maximum jail term for mail and wire fraud to 10 years
• Toughening laws criminalizing corporate document shredding
• Preventing corporate officers from receiving company loans
• Creation of a Corporate Fraud Task Force to manage fraud investigations and prosecution and coordinate enforcement activities between agencies
• $20 million boost to the SEC's budget this year and $100 million more for 2003 to hire new officers and improve technology
• CEOs and business schools should set a tone for others
• Wall Street analysts should be trusted advisors instead of salespeople
• Executives should be forced to return money they gain from fraud and rule-breakers should be banned from future leadership positions
• An independent regulatory board to oversee the accounting profession
• Companies need to move beyond minimum standards when making their financial reports