Friday, July 02, 2010

Schumpeter: Two cheers for Sarbanes-Oxley


The Supreme Court gets it right by tweaking, but not overturning, the controversial legislation

AMERICAN business people of a conservative nature have been dreaming about driving a stake through the heart of the Sarbanes-Oxley act ever since the legislation was passed, back in 2002, in the wake of the Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and Global Crossing scandals. George Bush rightly described the legislation as “the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt”. But to its critics it is far-reaching in the wrong direction. The American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think-tank, has dismissed Sarbox as a “colossal failure”. Ron Paul, a Texan libertarian, has argued that it puts America at a competitive disadvantage.

See full Article.