December 04, 2006

Ted isn't the only one who found the committee's actual policy recommendations to be rather weak tea, given the report's alarming diagnosis of flagging U.S. financial competitiveness. (Given that Floyd Norris and Stephen Labaton at the Times are going to blast you anyway, why not go for what really needs doing?) The New York Post, in an article given the sprightly title "Sarbox Detox Now: Panel", says "some criticism of [the] report" for not going far enough "came from the venture capital business":

"This is a step in the right direction, but it does not go nearly far enough to address the deep roots of the problem," said Bob Grady, a partner at Carlyle Venture Partners. "There were way too many 'established company' guys on this committee, and not enough people who think about job creation."

Grady, who is also chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, said that the cost for small companies to comply with Section 404 is the same as for large companies.

"It is insane that a start-up with a handful of employees has to pay the exact same amount to comply with the law as Wal-Mart," he said. "We won't see a sustained expansion of U.S. listing activity until this is addressed."

Thanks to the many blogs that linked my London Times column of last week on the subject, among them InstaPundit, Stephen Bainbridge, Wired GC, D and O Diary, TigerHawk, Cities on a Hill (more here), and (guestblogging at Lies, Damn Lies and Forward-Looking Statements) Werner Kranenburg.