Two Party Problem

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/03/two-party-problem

A Wall Street Journal editorial on Sarbanes-Oxley "relief" carries this passage:

"Our members are working on improvements and exemptions," says a House Republican aide about potential Sarbox reform.

That is not reassuring. Never mind the improvements and exemptions — why not just repeal the whole thing, like ObamaCare?

Of course "exemptions" sets up a race for various categories of businesses to hire ex-congressional-aides and ex-Congressmen (ex-cons?) as lobbyists to plead for exemptions, and to make campaign contributions in search of such exemptions. And the "improvements" create more work for the lawyers and accountants to have companies that have finally, at great cost, figured out how to comply with the existing law, to start all over again figuring out how to comply with the "improvements."

At the risk of sounding cynical, at a certain point one starts to wonder whether either political party is interested in passing growth-friendly laws, or if they are just interested in having an issue they can milk.

by Ira Stoll  |  Mar 21, 2011 at 9:44 pm Related Topics:  Campaign Finance, Capital Markets Regulation receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list