The Journal and Refco

Admittedly, picking on the Wall Street Journal's editorial page is a cheap thrill, but I just can't stop myself this morning. Last week, I wrote how the implosion of commodities firm Refco would probably put the kabash on the efforts by business lobbyists to gut the Sarbanes/Oxley Act. This morning, the Journal picks up on that theme:

"One early lesson is already apparent: All those new laws, rules and
regulators that Congress created after the WorldCom and Enron failures
weren't able to detect, much less prevent, what is alleged to have been
fraudulent behavior. Sarbanes-Oxley, which was supposed to protect
investors from nefarious CEOs, didn't deter former Refco chief Phillip
Bennett from allegedly disguising that an entity he controlled owed Refco hundreds of millions of dollars."

Right. And we might as well repeal the homocide laws since they haven't put an end to murder.