TheDanold
Unimatrix
"Controversial from the start, SOX came to be despised by many businessmen in America (and beyond, where it has touched big foreign firms). Even its authors have reservations, conceding that its hasty passage into law meant it was badly drafted in parts. “Frankly, I would have written it differently,” Michael Oxley, one of the former congressmen who drafted the act said in March. He added that the same was true of his co-author, Paul Sarbanes."
The charges levelled against SOX are numerous and serious. Top of the list is the price of compliance. It soon became clear that the costs of implementing SOX's provisions, particularly section 404, far exceeded the modest sums initially predicted. The act is now widely regarded as a licence for audit firms to print money—ironic in that it was these fee-driven firms that, arguably, encouraged the lax accounting that led to the legislation.
Beyond its immediate price-tag, SOX stands accused of undermining America's entrepreneurial spirit. Barely a year after it became law, William Donaldson, then chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), wondered if by unleashing “batteries of lawyers across the country” the legislation would lead to a “loss of risk-taking zeal” due to a “huge preoccupation with the dangers and risks of making the slightest mistake”. Others argue that the act has backfired. Rather than restore confidence in public companies, they claim, it has weakened America's stockmarkets, by driving domestic firms into the arms of private-equity buyers and prompting foreign firms to list their shares elsewhere.
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9545905
What a disaster, this is the biggest lag on the US economy, it needs to be repealed and the sooner the better or America will continue to lose out more to other countries going in the less regulation direction in the future.
The charges levelled against SOX are numerous and serious. Top of the list is the price of compliance. It soon became clear that the costs of implementing SOX's provisions, particularly section 404, far exceeded the modest sums initially predicted. The act is now widely regarded as a licence for audit firms to print money—ironic in that it was these fee-driven firms that, arguably, encouraged the lax accounting that led to the legislation.
Beyond its immediate price-tag, SOX stands accused of undermining America's entrepreneurial spirit. Barely a year after it became law, William Donaldson, then chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), wondered if by unleashing “batteries of lawyers across the country” the legislation would lead to a “loss of risk-taking zeal” due to a “huge preoccupation with the dangers and risks of making the slightest mistake”. Others argue that the act has backfired. Rather than restore confidence in public companies, they claim, it has weakened America's stockmarkets, by driving domestic firms into the arms of private-equity buyers and prompting foreign firms to list their shares elsewhere.
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9545905
What a disaster, this is the biggest lag on the US economy, it needs to be repealed and the sooner the better or America will continue to lose out more to other countries going in the less regulation direction in the future.
