You'll want to take your time reading this post from Werner Kranenburg. Kranenburg builds a case, supported by some notable sources, that Sarbox isn't the boogeyman it has been made out to me with regard to U.S. capital market competitiveness. Rather, he argues that we should look to the current ill-advised conflation of domestic market regulation and foreign policy when endeavoring to understand Wallstreet's diminished appeal to international business.

Designed to help provide further security and sharper tools of influence of intractable governments abroad, capital market sanctions were embraced in the late 1990s as, well, warfare by other means. The SEC's Office of Global Security Risk, initiated under former SEC head William Donaldson administers capital market sanctions, but the roots of the policy go further back. The architect of the policy? U.S. congressman Christopher Cox. Cox now, of course, is better known as the chairman of the SEC.

Interesting stuff, with plenty of meat on the bone. Check out the full post from Kranenburg here. Also be sure to bookmark Werner's blog, With Vigour and Zeal, for further reading.

-- MDT

Labels: capital market sanctions, capital markets, Christopher Cox, regulation, SEC, SOX, With Vigor and Zeal