I know IT people, and auditors, and accountants, and for that matter lawyers, all engaged in trying to get businessmen to comply properly with SOx.

Businessmen seem consistently to have dragged their feet at actually doing more than signing their names, believing firmly that SOx was going to be gutted if not cancelled, real soon, because it cost too much to comply.

This is a clerical-level view of that world, I have too much art, writing, photography, hiking and flying to do in my life to waste time on a professional job, since I can make a decent living just by knowing how to spell, and add and subtract, for professionals who can’t.

Life is good. Lots of bargains in the USA this new century.

It’s enabled the accountants, auditors, and IT System consultants to fill their pockets by selling so-called internal control systems that should have already been implemented according to the auditing standards for granting a clean opinion on a company’s financials.

Ironic isn’t it? The folks that failed in their task of preventing all of the fraud and abuses are now profiting from their own incompetence.

Might be a still tougher sell?

I partially agree with that statement. However, the likely change in regime and party in November will mean that said powerful interests won’t have a very sympathetic ear in Washington. Plus, a lot of people are more than fed up by the excesses of these powerful people.

That would make quite a difference.

I disagree with this. I think it’s equally important to get the job done now. Because, while the pain of recession may not go away for awhile, the sense of crisis will. And once that happens, there will be powerful interests arrayed against ANY attmepts to improve regulation and oversight.
Look what happened to ‘reform’ after the Enron debacle. Sarbanes Oxley was about the sum total…and what good has it done?

Any serious overreach, with real economic consequences, can be undone in the future much more easily than any underreach can be remedied.

flory

US consumer demand as a % of GDP is probably 2% to 4% points above where it should be. In a recession, we could see an overshoot (consumer demand could decline to 62% to 64% of GDP) given the current debt load and declining asset prices; but this declining PCE will also be accompanied by a declining GDP.

We are not yet on the ground and, if we hit the ground expect no mercy.

Andrew Teasdale

The TAMRIS Consultancy