I agree with most of what you're saying Dave. But, what was the alternative to the SOX reaction to the unethical and unparalleled deceptions of governance and accounting that took place?
If compliance with SOX has driven the IPO market offshore for a less cumbersome harbor to comply, then what happens when now that the rest of the world is seeing the collapse of our market functions to the relentless unethical efforts of our own Wall Street, that they too put into place more draconian regs to report and be transparent in corporate governance?
Is there a period of time and a synthesis whereby SOX compliance can be achieved and provide the transparency and ethical governace as a rule of thumb, or will draconian methods be all that 'the street' understands.
I get most of the arguments about SOX requiring much higher upfront costs to meet requirements for companies wishing to go public. But, what about the old ways of IPOs worth any rational speculation going to favored clients of the underwriters, and entreprenuerial Joe Blow getting no part of the IPO, only sucked into the speculation of the aftermarket? After a while, when all the juice is taken out of an IPO by the big boys, and the chitlins are left to the suckers, that game gets old, and who is left to sympathise with the syndicates of underwriters and insider favored clients who got the cream?
Even the most adept and successful cheating gamblers know that there have to be winners, and the more the game is perceived to be rigged, the less people play. So, the gamblers get religion and join the temperance movement and go about smashing and shutting down the casinos, bars, or wherever the vice is occuring that they once got burned in. SOX is the Billy Sundae - WCTU temperance movement of Wall Street, it seems to me.