Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal defends the Sarbanes Oxley Act, arguing that its costs do not explain why more companies are going private. In contrast, the CEO of Georgia Pacific explained that his company sold out to private Koch Industries in order to avoid mounting Sarbox costs. Murray claims that estimated annual auditing costs of $14 million (on average) are small compared to CEO compensation and stock options. This comparison is inappropriate.
Here is Robert LeFevre’s classic argument for a purely free society, the essay that made him a leading, if controversial, spokesman for the libertarian position on government and society.
From the Guardian: “A last-ditch Conservative bid to scupper the government’s plans for extended pub opening hours failed in the Commons tonight. The move was rejected by 302 votes to 228, majority 74. The Tories had hoped to prevent next week’s relaxation of Britain’s drinking laws, with a vote on whether to allow the Licensing Act - passed two years ago - to come into effect...
Delicious irony in a CFO.com story about how the US tax man himself can’t keep a set of straight books.
The exact date escapes my memory but many will know it. Ludwig von Mises was to be the featured scholar at the Future of Freedom Conference at Long Beach State University. He would be introduced by Dirk Pearson, then going by the name Sky Deorious or something.
The way I got to meet von Mises is that I came to be the designated driver to pick him up at, I believe, the Long Beach Airport. During the time walking from the plane to my car, I had a chance to chat with him briefly.
Now that the furor over the botched response to Hurricane Katrina has largely subsided, we can calmly examine an aspect of the episode that most commentators have neglected. Let me motivate the examination by first making the (perhaps surprising) claim that I don’t think the FEMA bureaucrats did anything particularly outrageous. Yes, it is true that the main damage to New Orleans was caused not by the hurricane per se, but by the government’s poorly designed levee system.
An economist who is also a concert pianist? Yes indeed, and here is the proof. And the pianist is playing what many people consider to be the world’s greatest piano, right in the offices of the Mises Institute.
The music and performance display passion, mastery, and musical eloquence. It could easily become your favorite. Download samples.
Submitted from Dave Gallagher:
I was sitting at Starbucks this morning sipping a Venti Latte which I obtained via a mutually beneficial voluntary exchange. My companion, a good natured but eternally self contradicting “progressive” had been yacking about “Big Oil” price gouging. I flipped open the local paper to the business section where the following article caught my eye.
GM spokesman Jerry Dubrowski said speculation of a GM bankruptcy is inappropriate and doesn’t reflect the predominant view on Wall Street. “We have no plans to declare bankruptcy, and we don’t think it’s appropriate to continue to comment on what I would term sensational speculation by some observers,” he said.
