

The Supreme Case Against Sarbanes Oxley - grellas
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704431804574539921864252380.html

======
jswinghammer
The only people who like Sarbanes Oxley are those who are employed in order to
comply with these regulations. The costs to private business aren't
justifiable. Any public company can go bankrupt at any time just like Enron
did. There's no sense in treating every corporation like criminals because
some people lost some money in the stock market. I think the lesson here is
that people need to become better educated in just how risky the stock market
is and consider that before investing anything in it.

~~~
conover
While I agree that Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a tremendous burden on business,
Enron was criminal fraud perpetrated by the company's executives and the
accounting firm that was supposed to be overseeing them. When a company fails
transparently, it's typically not an overnight collapse that destroys the
entire value of the company.

I think the lesson here is to find a balance between the overreaction that is
Sarbanes-Oxley and the criminal frauds that were Enron/Arthur-Anderdon,
WorldCom, etc.

~~~
fnid
I think that balance is prosecuting the fraudsters. There have always been
laws against fraud. Locks keep out the honest people. The criminals are going
to find ways around SOX too.

I think the real solution here is to stop treating corporations like
individuals. Stop allowing them to contribute to political campaigns. End soft
money. The enron guys were in bed with washington. You have to end that kind
of relationship to prevent the power shift that pushed the balance to the
corporations.

~~~
anamax
> I think the real solution here is to stop treating corporations like
> individuals. Stop allowing them to contribute to political campaigns. End
> soft money. The enron guys were in bed with washington.

Campaign contributions are the weakest way that corps influence DC. Ending it
won't matter in the slightest, and neither will public financing.

The only way to keep corps from getting favors from DC is to make sure that DC
doesn't have the ability to give favors. Regulatory capture is unavoidable.

~~~
fnid
I think preventing reciprocity for the behaviors that benefit corporations is
a step in the right direction.

~~~
anamax
Nope - it's a waste of time to even try.

Your intent does not determine the effect of various measures. Regulatory
capture does (at least in this domain).

------
viggity
Worse is Better

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better>

Does it suck that bad things happen sometimes (enron)? Yes, but the extra
complexity is worse than the original problem.

