According to a Financial Executives International survey of 321 companies, however, firms with greater than $5 billion in revenues spend an average of $4.7 million per year to comply with section 404.

That quote pretty much sums up everything that is wrong with SOX, compliance with zero value creation. The next time you buy something, think about how many cents in the aggregate supply chain go to SOX compliance.

The ironic thing is that if you add up the aggregate SOX compliance costs incurred by global businesses operating in the U.S., the amount would surely dwarf what was lost in the corporate scandals that precipitated this curse.

Of course, this Do Nothing Congress is no better than the last Do Nothing Congress, while there are broad issues that both parties can agree on, like SOX and AMT reform, they choose to spin their cycles on meaningless measures (of the 25 bills signed into law under this congress, 12 have been to rename federal buildings, post offices, and 1 recreation area.

Tags: SOX