AEI on PCAOB

The American Enterprise Institute's Henry Olsen sent along the following email:

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Dear Professor Bainbridge,

In June, National Journal’s Jonathan Rauch devoted a column to the case challenging the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (known as “Peekaboo”) created by Congress in 2002 in a frantic response to the Enron scandal. “A little over three years later, in fall 2005,” Rauch wrote, “a handful of free market activists and litigators met in a windowless 11th floor conference room at the American Enterprise Institute. . . . They included . . . Michael Greve . . . who brought the group together. They shared a conviction that Congress’s 2002 creation was a constitutional monster.” The lawyers and scholars gathered together filed suit in February 2006, asking the Supreme Court to strike down Peekaboo. In May, the Court agreed to hear the case. Today, the arguments begin. In a post on the Enterprise blog, Greve writes that “the case presents a direct, dramatic confrontation between the political institutions’ government by free form improvisation and the Supreme Court’s responsibility to protect the constitutional structure and order.” In a column in the Wall Street Journal this morning, James Freeman writes that “new research suggests that the costs of [Sarbanes-Oxley] far outweigh its benefits to the investing public.” AEI scholars agree.

“What’s at Stake in the Sarbanes-Oxley Case,” by Michael S. Greve

Blog post on the Enterprise Blog

Full Text: http://blog.american.com/867

“Public Company Accounting Oversight Board: A Preview”

AEI event with Paul S. Atkins, Michael S. Greve, and others

More Information: www.aei.org/event/100177

“The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle,” by Henry N. Butler and Larry E. Ribstein

AEI Press book

More Information: www.aei.org/book/855

“Sarbanes-Oxley in the Light of the Financial Crisis,” by Alex J. Pollock

AEI Regulation Outlook

Full Text: www.aei.org/outlook/100090