Any comptroller can steer investments to favored managers or funds, send legal work to preferred law firms, or channel investments into causes or companies that advance a personal or political agenda.

The uneven treatment of inflation gives investors an unwarranted subsidy - steering investments toward projects that could harm the economy but that become profitable only because of the lopsided tax provision.

The contract, which Poland awarded to Lockheed Martin over two European manufacturers, is starting to stir frustration here because of the time it is taking Lockheed to fulfill its promise to steer American investments to Poland to offset the purchase.

After teaching school, he opened an office as a civil and mining consulting engineer and, being so familiar with the geography of the state, was able to steer lucrative foreign and Northern investments to the most appropriate places.

Known as the "cap and trade" approach, it is intended to steer investments in pollution control toward the cheapest possible solutions.

If new rules undermine investor confidence, they could steer investments in less useful directions.

Nor was there any link, he said, to the $100,000 fine Lerner paid in April 2004 to resolve a complaint that brokers had been given bonuses for steering investments into certain mutual funds.

Though there is no evidence of that yet, executives here worry that American companies might steer future investments away from France and Germany to southern and eastern European countries, which have pledged fealty to the Bush administration.