In the wake of the collapse of Enron and WorldCom corporations, and the widespread misstatements and omissions in corporate financial statements of a number of other SEC reporting companies, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank) is a conglomeration of a number of acts adopted to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, ending the idea of “too big to fail,” protecting the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, and protecting consumers from abusive financial services practices. Both SOX and Dodd-Frank have been either applauded as landmark legislation which expand investor and consumer protections, or criticized as anti-competitive and over-burdensome governmental regulation.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it: Compose an essay which gives an overview of some of the major provisions of SOX and Dodd-Frank, focusing on those areas which would be of import to you as a CPA. In the course of your discussion, explore some of the arguments from “both sides of the aisle” (the pros and cons) for some of the provisions targeted by the legislation (your choice on which provisions you would like to discuss in-depth). Where do you stand—personally and professionally—on those issues?
