In recent months, I have looked at how Sarbanes-Oxley's co-writer Michael Oxley has joined a law firm to help companies get around Sarbox, taken on another paid gig at Nasdaq and blamed the problems with SOX on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Now in an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Mr Oxley has more or less told Sarbox critics to have a cold shower. If the US markets are less attractive to investors, he says, it's not the fault of the law he co-created.

"My message to the capital markets is 'Welcome to globalization.'

"The steel industry and auto industry have all been hit by globalization, so what makes New York think it's any different?

"These markets have matured in London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and not only their economies but their capital markets, and that's a good thing.

"A few things to keep in mind: a lot of the recent big IPO deals to come out on foreign markets were formerly state-owned enterprises, from France and China, for instance. Well, guess what? They're not going to list in New York. Also, it's a lot more expensive to have an IPO in the U.S. because the fees for the investment banks are 7 percent. It's 2 percent in Europe. If you're going to do a multimillion-dollar IPO it's a big difference, but you never hear that in New York. That factor is a lot more expensive than compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley."

To an extent, he is dead right. The forces of globalization are reshaping world markets, and New York is no exception. But he can't deny that listing in the US is now more costly.

The other interesting point is Oxley's claim that the now defunct accounting Andersen was a political sacrifice. Killing it was punishment for aiding and abetting Enron.

"I just think it was a political decision. Andersen could have been fined, they could have had all sorts of sanctions, they could have had monitor-ship. They could have been held up as a model for reform within, and I think we just missed the boat on that. There's now very little competition among accounting firms, and where you don't have competition, it drives up the costs."

How wise we are in retrospect. Too bad he didn't say anything at the time.