Maybe Later

Henry Waxman cancels his war on accounting.

Comments

[Rick Ballard]

Perhaps he's decided to focus on the great news that 357K homeowners stopped worrying about their overdue mortgage payments in March? Just think of all that money freed up for retail spending, not to mention the positive impact on the rental market.

Vote Democrat - you'll never worry about mortgage payments or a boss again!

[Pops]

Poor Henry, ingrown nose hair I hear...will take weeks to heal....

[peter]

Speaking of baseball, Ann Coulter belts one out of the park about retiring Justice Stevens. LUN

[Melinda Romanoff]

He's got a face only his mother could love....

[Janet]

Waxman - idiot, thug, and all around crappy guy.

[Clarice]

Great headline!
Next he might discover gravity makes dropped things fall to the ground.

[Jane]

Henry's DUH moment.

How do these morons get elected?

[hit and run]

TM:
Henry Waxman cancels his war on accounting.

He repealed SOX?!!??!

What?

Oh.

[daddy]

Did you see that he's decided to concentrate on something more important for the moment:
">http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-14/waxman-calls-for-major-league-baseball-ban-on-chewing-tobacco.html"> Waxman calls for major league baseball ban on chewing tobacco

[nathan hale]

He's also the idiot behind the previous Cap n Trade bill, not the new one, that's more Lindsay's gig, and hopefully not Lisa Murkowski, but the day is still young

[RJ]

He's got a face only his mother could love....

and even then, only out of pity.

[Rick Ballard]

Narciso,

It's really hard to picture Waxman as the "brains" behind anything more complicated than blowing that bazooka of his. We need to figure out who the Hedley Lamar is behind this Gov. LePetomane.

ION - leisure firms are sure to capitalize on the 'unexpected' news that 484K Americans found themselves with more free time this week. Maybe they'll just head for the mall rather than take a cruise though. Hard to say.

[nathan hale]

Sure, he didn't write the bill, most likely the Apollo Alliance did, this is the 'bug not a feature,' it would be funny, if it wasn't so tragic, Rick

[Melinda Romanoff]

Rick-

watch the NSA numbers in claims, and the big bump in EUC.

[Appalled]

h&R:

Sarbox was a gift to the accounting profession, not a curse.

[Neo]

Pull no punches ... Henry Waxman is a coward.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Appalled-

Legal, not accounting.

[Rocco]

daddy

Maybe Major League Baseball should call for a ban on smoking politicians, starting with our president. If he can preach about the health hazards caused by chewing tobacco and the bad example it sets for our youth, how can he let the president off the hook for smoking, especially with a daughter who suffers from asthma. Does he hug his daughter with his clothing saturated with smoke? How many times has he triggered his daughters asthma?

[nathan hale]

It made legitimate issuance of public offerings more difficult, thus allowing
these subprime tranches to crowd the portfolios of firms like Lehman Brothers

[daddy]

"Maybe Major League Baseball should call for a ban on smoking politicians, starting with our president."

Great point Rocco,

There's nobody more pushed for hero worship or as a role model for young kids in this country than the Smoker in Chief.

[Ranger]

Totally off topic, but I saw a headline somewhere on line this morning about the Chinese government falling behind on stimulus payments to firms, and now I can't fine it again. Anyone hear or see anything like that recently? It would seem to be very bad news on many levels if its true.

[Janet]

That would be good for Jane's YouToo site. Banning tobacco use by politicians.

[Melinda Romanoff]

glasater put it up here.

(China stuff)

[Ignatz]

I think you mean this, Ranger. It was posted by Glasater on the 'shadowboxing' thread.

[Ignatz]

Never mind.

[Jane]

Rocco -

I'm gonna steal that - with attribution when I have a sec

[Jim Ryan]

Sarbox was a gift to legal and accounting? Would lawyers and accountants not prefer to help create wealth instead of destroying wealth by being paid to dig holes and fill them in all day?

[Ranger]

Thanks Ignatz!

[nathan hale]

"Good news, everybody" and I do mean that in a
Professor Farnsworth sense of the word, in the LUN

[Ignatz]

This seemingly disappeared into the typepad orifice the first time so I'll try again:

Here is an NRO piece by Stephen Spruiell which says pretty much everything I've been trying to say about the GOP and the economy, only better.
Worth reading both economics and politics wise.

[rse]

JR-

Most lawyers have no real idea of how wealth is created in the private sector or what impacts a business' ability to make payroll.

Too few seem to be able to look beyond the language of the statute and regulations and remember to temper their interpretations with the economic reality that will affect the actual impact.

Common sense is NOT a common feature of the profession.

[Appalled]

Sarbox was supported by the accountng profession (or at least, the large accounting firms, and continues to be supported by it. You can take a cynical view of this -- as Sarbox helped end the 2001 recession for the accounting industry -- but the many accountants I work with can give you a detailed, detailed, detailed explanation of how Sarbox auditing of corporate processes improved the quality of audits.

That said, I don't know of a corporate CEO who does not think Sarbox is an enormous waste of resources. It just depends where you sit.

[Danube of Thought]

It's still early, but this guy Jason Levin appears to be the front-runner for Dolt of the Year. Now he's being investigated by whatever is the appropriate Oregon agency for schoolteachers who disgrace themselves and their profession.

[Bill in AZ]

" Now he's being investigated by whatever is the appropriate Oregon agency for schoolteachers who disgrace themselves and their profession."

They'll prolly give him an award. I read the Oregon schools were contemplating reducing the school week to 4 days. That surprised me. I figured they got rid of the whole school system by now. When I left there a few years ago, they lopped off the last 2 or 3 weeks of the school year as a vindictive response to the stupid voters who did not approve a large tax increase (instead of doing something fiscally responsible with the budget).

[nathan hale]

More good news, yes the irony is intended

[Danube of Thought]

It just depends where you sit.

Given a choice between the judgment of the guy who sits in the accounting office and the guy who sits in the CEO's chair, I'll take the latter every time. There's a reason why they're sitting where they are.

[Ignatz]

--but the many accountants I work with can give you a detailed, detailed, detailed explanation of how Sarbox auditing of corporate processes improved the quality of audits--

Audit quality, indeed. No doubt the lifetime sinecure Sarbox gives them does not enter into the equation.

[Captain Hate]

Sarbox was supported by the accountng profession (or at least, the large accounting firms, and continues to be supported by it. You can take a cynical view of this

Oh for crissake: It was the beancounter full employment act. What's not to love: Create a kafkaesque labyrinth of almost completely undefined "tests" that medium to large firms have to pass or be out of compliance. Shazzam: Instant demand for the experts to sign off on a mountain of paper that nobody in their right mind will sift through but you damn sight have to have it or God knows what penalties will befall you.

Complete boondoggle adding tons of expenses with not one penny of additional revenue to offset it. It's surprising it didn't produce an immediate depression. One of the worst acts of Congress in my lifetime.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Any guesses as to who was the "political mentor" of Paul Sarbanes?

(You might know the mentor's daughter...)

[Captain Hate]

Hmmmm, from that clue it must be Tommy D'Allesandro

[Melinda Romanoff]

No fun.

Next time, no hints...

[Rick Ballard]

Ignatz,

Thanks for the Spruiell piece. It seems to me that the safest strategy would consist of reprinting the initial BOzo Insane Clown Show unemployment projections coupled with highlights from Elmendorf and Bernanke's remarks concerning the fact that the Dem drunken sailor spending binge is both unsustainable and the equivalent of breaking kids piggy banks to pay for a night on the town.

I don't believe there's much risk in pointing at the economy and laughing but the actual demographic target is more apt to pay attention to employment/unemployment than per capita GDP.

[jimmyk]

Dem drunken sailor spending binge

Didn't Gentle Ben support porkulus? What exactly did he think it was?

[EBJ]

Captain Hate's right on SOX. It was the template for the bank bailouts.

What did we do when the banks made massive bad loans largely due to due diligence errors? We gave them even more money to lend. What did we do ten odd years ago when the big accounting firms signed off on audits for the likes of Enron and Global Crossing? Raised audit requirements to ensure that these big accounting firms got even more business. Right after SOX was passed the company I was with at the time got an unsolicited offer from our public auditor: all that SOX stuff you have to do now, we'll come in and look over your shoulder and do it for you, and it's only going to cost you $X million. We passed, but I'm sure other companies didn't (the process flow charts alone were a mini-nightmare).

[Frau Pfui!]

"He's got a face only his mother could love.."

And then only if she is blind. Henry's one of the sharpest thorns in CA's political crown.

[Rocco]

Awesome Jane...hope all is well in DC

[Rocco]

I feel so bad for the presidents daughter. It's bad enough to expose your children to second hand smoke, but to continue smoking when your child has asthma is inexcusable IMO. The president needs an intervention!

[Danube of Thought]

On behalf of drunken sailor everywhere, let me point out (as have others) that at least when we run out of money we stop spending.

[Jeff]

drunken sailors hardly ever spend all their money on booze ... the term comes from the fact that they spent alot of time away from the bottle and when they get the chance it doesn't take much to make them drunk ... now when it comes to hookers, well that tends to empty the wallet pretty quickly ... especially when you are already drunk ... :)