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Indybay Feature

Rollback of post-Enron corporate regulations in US

by wsws (reposted)
US government agencies have moved quickly following the November midterm elections to begin rolling back a number of regulatory measures put in place after a wave of corporate scandals in 2002. These steps have been taken under intense pressure from American corporations and Wall Street, which have raised their voices in opposition to the supposed “excesses” of business regulation.
Business opposition has focused on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in 2002 in response to major accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and other companies. Sarbanes-Oxley was itself a tepid measure, intended more to assuage the concerns of investors and restore confidence in American financial markets than to impose serious regulations to prevent corporate malfeasance. The fact that little has changed in corporate America can be seen in the ongoing revelations of financial misconduct, including the widespread practice of backdating stock options by CEOs and directors.

However, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act did put in place certain measures, including increased auditing oversight of internal financial controls at large corporations. These measures are now being scaled back.

On December 21, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), an agency established by Sarbanes-Oxley to oversee accounting firms and their audits of corporations, proposed new standards for auditors to reduce the burden on audited companies. The proposed regulatory changes could be finalized after a 70-day period of public comment.

More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/corp-d27.shtml
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