With many Americans believing that the President supports corrupt corporate practices, President George Bush had to convince the public that he did not. His July 9th speech on corporate reform proposals didn't go over so well with the American public, according to a recent Gallup Organization poll of some 1,000 people. The poll revealed that nearly 40% said that Bush's proposals would not be effective at curbing corporate abuses, 18% said they weren't sure, and 43% expressed their confidence in the President's plan. That means that not even half of those polled had confidence after his speech. The poll went further to find that 46% of those polled said his interests lie in protecting large corporations, almost the same number thought he was more interested in safeguarding the public.
             Unfortunately for big corporations, Gallup found that more people now see these big corporations as a serious threat to their well being; when the survey asked respondents what they view as the biggest threat to the country, 38% picked big business, up sharply from 22% two years ago when the question was last asked. The poll discovered that most Americans believe unethical corporate practices are pretty common in the business world. More than 70% said corporate misconduct is at least relatively widespread, and 95% said business misdeeds happen at least occasionally.
             Meanwhile, according to Gallup's index of shareholder optimism, investors' confidence reached the lowest level this month since the index began six years ago.
             The confidence level was markedly lower for older investors-those who are over 40 years of age. The shareholder confidence index score for investors who are under 40 years of age was nearly twice as high as that of older investors.
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