The WSJ and SOX: Name Calling in Place of Analysis

During the Civil War, in the Battle of Chattanooga, the confederate soldiers manning the bluffs above the city screamed out the word "Chickamauga" at the approaching federals, as if the word and reminder of a northern defeat would somehow discourage the union army.  It didn't work.  For an account of this event, go here. 

Thoughts of these events surfaced with the WSJs editorial on Tuesday, Nov. 6 about efforts by Congressman Frank to pass the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007.  The editorial was titled "A Sarbox for Housing" and the last paragraph noted:

• The Frank bill is essentially a Sarbanes-Oxley for housing, an attempt to punish business in general for the excesses of an unscrupulous few and the perverse incentives created by Washington policy.

There are a few observations that can be made about this.  First, analysis by way of inapposite labels is not very convincing.  Second, at least the confederates had the sense to yell out a name of a battle that the other side lost.  Calling something Sarbox (please, can't we stick with SOX) is in many camps (including this Blog), a positive.  After all, since the adoption of SOX, fraud suits are down, stock prices are up and companies are making more accurate financial disclosure, as the trend in restatements illustrates.