July 24, 2007

Legendary tech columnist John C. Dvorak argues for SOX's repeal, bemoaning both its squelching of innovation and the corporate CEOs too scared to speak out against it. Of course, if one is a big-money CEO, one might not be entirely upset about a law that reduces the ability of a startup to obtain the capital it needs to unseat established players, despite the additional costs it imposes on one's company. The real victims are the consumers who miss out on that competition, and small investors who miss out on the opportunity to participate in deals that are now handled by private equity and foreign stock markets, but those sorts of unseen regulatory costs get undervalued in the policy debates by those who purport to speak on behalf of investors and consumers. See also.