How’s this for nerve?
While [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William] Donaldson said he supports the increased regulation and stepped-up enforcement that came from the Sarbanes-Oxley law, he said he was concerned that fear of the law was making companies less will to take risks and weighing down the U.S. economy. “Insofar as corporate managers are hesitant or reluctant to move ahead with business decisions because of a fear of conforming with Sarbanes-Oxley, I hope they will conform but I hope they will move on,” Donaldson said in an interview in New York….
A year after the law’s passage, it’s time for companies to recognize its requirements are here to stay, Donaldson said. The law, signed by President George W. Bush last July, is not intended to “tie up American business in a regulatory regime that is counterproductive and expensive,” Donaldson said.
“This isn’t to say that to conform to Sarbanes isn’t going to cost more money — it is,” Donaldson said. “There are going to have to be procedures put in to conform but that’s a cost of doing business, a cost of what has happened, but I think people have to move on now.” [Bloomberg]