I would like to thank my colleagues here at the Corporate Justice Blog for an absolutely wonderful conference at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law entitled, Financial Crisis Symposium that offered a progressive exploration of the cause of the current financial crisis.
Unfortunately due to a prior family obligation, I was unable to physically attend. However, I did watch the conference via web stream and participated via email. The marvels of modern technology truly are a wonderful thing.
The morning panel consisting of Professors Cheryl Wade, Steven Ramirez, Regina Burch and moderated by Todd J. Clark was absolutely superb. I was intrigued that each of the morning panelist thought that Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) has been a failure. I believe that SOX is a powerful piece of legislation that has been under-utilized and watered-down by the incessant lobbying that the “cost” of SOX compliance outweighs the “benefit” of SOX compliance. As a result, the application of SOX has not done the job that it was designed to do. I suppose then in that respect I would agree that SOX has failed to keep the proverbial barbarians at the gate from storming the citadel and has left the investing public and average Americans to the tender mercy of American corporate hospitality.
The afternoon panel consisting of Professors Timothy A. Canova, andré douglas pond cummings, Joseph Grant, Christian Johnson and moderated by Jena Martin-Amerson was equally superb. Professors Canova, cummings, and Grant each provided a unique perspective as to how the Financial Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act," opened the door and set the stage for the current financial crisis. Deregulation of the financial services sector was lauded as necessary to provide synergy and to maintain American corporate competitiveness. The reality has been that the Financial Modernization Act of 1999, weakened the authority of the American central bank, the Federal Reserve, weakened the ability of the federal regulators to regulate the markets and left the American public unprotected from corporate mismanagement, greed, and fraud.
On behalf of the viewing public, thank you for a job well done.
Lydie Nadia Cabrera Pierre-Louis
St. Thomas University School of Law
Professor Pierre-Louis,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the compliment! I'm glad you could tune in and follow us on the web. This was an excellent experience. Again, I thank Professors Christian Johnson and andre cummings, and the University of Utah for backing a wonderful and timely discussion of issues of importance. Again, thank you for watching.