The Price Of Corzine’s Accomplishments

Last week we noted the bio Senator Jon Corzine placed on the Huffington Post bragged: “His long list of accomplishments includes spearheading legislation cracking down on Wall Street abuses (the Sarbanes-Oxley Act), and most recently pushing through the Senate the Darfur Accountability Act to end genocide in the Sudan."

Corzine’s long list of accomplishments includes and ends with those two. The Huffington Post provided a full web page for Corzine to list away, he was under no space constraint. He has nothing else to point to with pride during his time in the Senate.

The Darfur Accountability Act was a feel good bit of legislation in its original form and as “pushed through” by Corzine had no hope of bringing about the end of genocide in the Sudan. Good intentions no doubt, but no accomplishment.

Now the The Economist calls into question Corzine’s remaining accomplishment - the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The magazine asks: “America's response to Enron and other scandals was the Sarbanes-Oxley law. It is costing plenty—but is it working?”

It is early days for academic appraisals, but the ones that have been ventured so far tend to the view that costs will exceed benefits. Meanwhile, many of America's businessmen are deeply unhappy, and with reason: the initial costs of the new law have been bigger than expected. And it can be argued that, when it comes to repairing American corporate governance, the law anyway addresses symptoms more than causes.

Read the whole article, Sarbanes-Oxley has been costly for all businesses and a disaster for smaller firms, the job creation engine for the nation. So much for Senator Corzine’s accomplishments.