[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.