Bush to focus on Pitt's future as SEC chairman

The Bush administration is being pressed to consider the future of Mr Harvey Pitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as part of a broader shake-up of the president's economic team after next week's mid-term elections.

The White House yesterday fended off calls to fire Mr Pitt for inept management of the SEC and the troubled appointment of a new accountancy regulator.

Behind the scenes, senior administration officials have taken soundings from prominent Wall Street financiers about the ebbing confidence in the administration's economic team.

"We know that Bush is loyal. His team has been hard-working, but Treasury has not been successful in its various pursuits," said one Republican donor on Wall Street who has advised the Bush administration on economic policy.

Vice-President Dick Cheney is understood to have taken a keener interest in economic policy management, hosting meetings recently with Wall Street grandees in Washington.

The future of Mr Paul O'Neill, the Treasury secretary, has been the subject of speculation for more than a year, as powerful figures on Wall Street - both Democrat and Republican - have done little to disguise their dissatisfaction. But Mr Bush's advisers have stressed his loyalty to Mr O'Neill.

Administration officials have made "overtures" to test Wall Street's view of the White House's in-house economics team: Mr Larry Lindsey, the president's chief economic adviser, and Mr Glenn Hubbard, the chairman of the council of economic advisers.

Mr Pitt has not historically been considered part of the administration's economic team. But the SEC chairman's botched handling of the appointment of Mr William Webster as a new accountancy regulator has added to the frustration at the administration's failure to restore investor confidence.

There was the beginning of an effort yesterday to bring together a group of senior Wall Street figures to present a letter to Mr Bush calling on the president to restore the credibility of the SEC.

The SEC this week launched an investigation into its own appointment of Mr Webster, after it emerged that he had told Mr Pitt he had been head of the audit committee of a company now being sued for alleged fraud.