I'm going to do my best or die trying - that much I can certainly promise.
You raise a very good point in saying that maintaining good books is essential in encouraging investment. Unfortunately, this is going to require major systematic change and the American people need to educate themselves a bit more on what is going on within their own country. From companies like Enron cooking the books to the quasi-monopoly of rating agencies competing against each other to offer clients and their junk-based CDOs top grades - it is clear that the mechanics of our system have grown to depend on manipulation and corruption to keep it running.
Some of you might benefit from reading some of Matt Taibbi's work. He is published in Rolling Stone and offers tremendous insight on all of the corruption that goes on behind the scenes. I really respect him for his willingness to get his hands dirty and take on these issues head-on.