No Strong Voice Is Heard on Bush's Economic Team

With the stock market plunging the other day and surveys depicting Americans as increasingly worried about the way the Bush administration is dealing with the economy and corporate fraud, Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill, the administration's main voice on economic issues, was in Kyrgyzstan.

Mr. O'Neill's absence — after a trip to Africa in late May and before a trip to South America late this month — reinforced the view on Wall Street and in political circles here that President Bush's economic team was not responding sufficiently to growing economic and political pressures.
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