SEC chairman William Donaldson resigned his post only days after two highly embarassing scandals were revealed at the agency that enforces the nation’s accounting rules. The Government Accountability Office conducted an audit of the agency and found three material weaknesses in its internal controls . The weaknesses related to its recording of
In a major legal defeat for NY attorney general Eliot Spitzer, Bank of America broker Ted Sihpol was acquitted of charges that he illegally helped a New Jersey hedge fund trade in mutual funds after the stock market had closed. Sihpol was the only individual charged by Spitzer in the so-called late trading scandal. The verdict is further evidence
A new company is being formed by the Nasdaq and Reuters to provide stock research for nearly 700 companies that currently lack research coverage by any major brokerage firm on Wall Street. Why do brokerage firms not cover these companies? Since the Wall Street research settlement engineered by Eliot Spitzer, brokerage firms were forced to scale
Renowned Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper, founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, predicts that Sarbanes-Oxley “will have the exact opposite effect that it intended.” One unintended consequence is the heightened legal liability of corporate board members. Draper has removed himself from all public boards because of the potential of being
Property Casualty Insurers Association president Ernie Csiszar has bitterly complained about New York prosecutor/gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer’s unfair use of the threat of jail and trial by media against business executives. Spitzer is himself guilty of conflict of interest, but answers to no higher authority. This is perhaps the most
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is financially irresponsible, writes CNBC mutual funds columnist Tim Middleton . The Domini Social Equity Fund, an index of 400 most socially conscious companies, ranks in the 88th percentile of comparable funds over the past 12 months. The downfall of SRI in recent years has been its concentration on three
A Bloomberg report describes the folly that is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. SOX has caused companies to divert resources from consumer-serving operations into the installation of new computers and the hiring of additional accounting workers. SOX forced Yellow Roadway Corporation to hire 10 additional employees and 20 consultants to help write new
From late March, individuals have been able to buy gold for investment online from the Bank of China and other selected banks which are members of the Shanghai Gold Exchange Perhaps a step toward an eventual return to real
Inflation: Why you’re not getting a raise this year : If you’re like most Americans, don’t count on a raise this year. The Los Angeles Times reported on Monday: “For the first time in 14 years, the American workforce has in effect gotten an across-the-board pay cut.” In other words, inflation is back. The cost of living, measured by the federal
The Business Roundtable, with 160 of the largest U.S. companies, says its members paid $10 million each on Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance in 2004. Section 404 of the SOX has caused greater-than-anticipated personnel, consulting, auditing, and software expenses, according to a survey by Financial Executives International. In the survey , 94% of
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.