December is shaping up as a big month for SOX watchers.
Treasury secretary Hank Paulson has put together a posse, as described by the New York Post, targeting Sarbanes-Oxley with the outfit including former Fed chief Alan Greenspan, Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld and former SEC head Harvey Pitt.
At the same time, the SEC has announced that recommendations regarding Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, along with other matters, will be considered at an open meeting on December 13.
Meanwhile the Paulson-backed Committee on Capital Markets Regulation is about to issue an interim report on changes to Sarbanes-Oxley and Section 404.
But the question is whether the posse has any punch?
For all the attention that's been placed on it, the Treasury Department is still comparatively weak, says the My Daily Fatwa blog:
"It collects taxes, protects the president, and heads the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, but really doesn't set regulatory policy in any area except for taxation. So Paulson can use the weight of his (diminished) office to try to push through regulatory changes, but he's in a poor position to do it by himself."
For all the talk and bluster, the reality is that the scope of Sarbanes-Oxley is so extensive that it would just about impossible to wind it right back. It is so wide and so many companies are affected by it. It's not that easily dismantled.
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