It is pretty bad. The desire to avoid having to deal with SOX compliance has pushed a lot of companies to sell themselves privately rather than IPO. A lot of the restrictions that are imposed make debugging and fixing operational problems a lot harder. Many of the policies that are imposed are actively harmful.
And, sadly, SOX compliance is easily bypassed by bad actors. I'm not convinced that Enron would have been stopped by the regulation. And even if it would have been, after several rounds of regulatory capture like the above, the regulation will be nothing more than another marketing channel for auditing companies.
And, sadly, SOX compliance is easily bypassed by bad actors. I'm not convinced that Enron would have been stopped by the regulation. And even if it would have been, after several rounds of regulatory capture like the above, the regulation will be nothing more than another marketing channel for auditing companies.