Editorial of the day

I know accounting law is about as exciting as watching the Academy Award being presented for "Best Microphone Work in a Foreign Film", but the editorial by Mallory Factor over at the Wall Street Journal's website is an important read.

Factor points out the Democrats are hopping on the anti-Sarbanes-Oxley(Sarbox, as she calls it) bandwagon. For those of you who do not remember, Sarbox was passed in 2002 in response to the Enron and Worldcom accounting scandals. What you may not realize is the impact this legislation has had on businesses, and the U.S. economy:

"Beyond the direct cost of compliance to individual companies, a recent University of Rochester study concluded that the total effect of the law has reduced the stock value of American companies by $1.4 trillion. That is $1.4 trillion that could be invested in infrastructure improvements, jobs, innovative technologies or research and development."

Personally, I would not mind seeing the Democrats use this issue to help stake out a position to the right of the Republicans. It might give me more options at the ballot box.