State of Innovation

According to the NYtimes the House Financial Services Committee approved an amendment to Sarbanes Oxley (Sarbox) that would allow some companies to be exempt from this legislation.  While the article implies that many companies would not be exempt under this amendment, the amendment only applies to companies worth less than $75 million and asks for a study of whether companies worth less than $250 million should be exempt.

Sarbanes Oxley has severely damaged the technology start-up market and the financial industry in the U.S.  Sarbox is very expensive: including enormous direct and indirect costs to our economy and to innovation.  It has not met its goals of improving the quality of auditing or preventing fraud.  The effects of this law include fewer public companies, fewer companies going public, more companies choosing to go public in foreign markets, absurdly high auditing expenses and a significant decrease in risk capital.

For More information see Sarbanes Oxley – Is the Medicine Worse Than the Disease – 1 and Sarbanes Oxley – Is the Medicine Worse Than the Disease – 2 .