Unfortunately, I don’t believe there’s
anything remotely amusing about Sarbanes-Oxley.  There
is increasing evidence that SOX:

  • has made small public companies an endangered
    species
    ;
  • is threatening
    the vitality
    of our dynamic public
    markets and driving the US more to the model of institutionally-driven
    markets prevalent elsewhere around the globe;
  • is driving foreign companies with a choice of where
    to list themselves to the London exchange instead
    of the NYSE
    ; and most importantly
  • decreases investor
    returns
    on firms complying
    with SOX compared to a "control group" of similar firms
    exempt from SOX (because they’re foreign-listed).

Would that there were an institutional mechanism making
the incentives for Congress to repeal laws equal to
the incentives to enact them.  And in the meantime,
I miss my (pre-SOX) practice of securities law; those
days may be gone for good.

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