[pohart]

What I'm saying is that just because a particular set of regulations didn't help in a particular case doesn't mean that regulation is worthless. SOX was created primarily intended to prevent the type of gross-mismanagement that brought down Enron.

[dpapathanasiou]

SOX was created primarily intended to prevent the type of gross-mismanagement that brought down Enron.

That's right, that was the intention.

So what happened at Bear?

I doubt that SOX, in the way it's implemented now, will be useful in preventing any future failures.

[pohart]

A different kind of gross mismanagement: One that involved less fraud, and backroom transaction.

I agree that SOX is probably not particularly useful. Although it does target some specific bad practices that were instrumental in Enron's collapse, especially wrt off-balance-sheet transactions and auditor independence. Of course mismanagement can cause businesses to fail, and can cause businesses to fail spectacularly. SOX was designed around a particular model of failure and it is disingenuous to claim that because there are other models of failure are possible, SOX is a waste.

Again: SOX is probably not worth the expense, but the Bear collapse is unrelated.