Analysis and discussion of issues that impact business

Many people in business know that all too well.

By the way, this will be an ongoing theme on this blog. Sorry to be a one-note-samba, but the evidence is overwhelming that most government interference in business has a negative impact on the business. Small businesses are most succeptable. From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report by congressional auditors finds that the costs for public companies to comply with a 2002 anti-fraud law have been higher than anticipated, providing ammunition to business interests that have been complaining about the law's impact.

What a shock. Politicians locked in a building with large offices and marble hallways, are too far removed from the "real world" to understand the effect of their handiwork.

"This (GAO) report leads me to caution the Securities and Exchange Commission against creating complex and cumbersome regulations that have the potential to place small businesses in a paralyzing state of regulatory limbo and damage their ability to create jobs," said Snowe, who heads the Senate's Small Business Committee. "Instead, I urge the SEC to adopt clear, unambiguous and practical small-business rules."

The Sarbanes-Oxley bill was (another) knee-jerk Congressional reaction to the spate of corporate scandals that dominated the headlines in 2002. The public clamored for more "accountability" and "investor protection" after the corruption was uncovered. So what did the public pressure get?

"The GAO report ratifies the growing chorus of economists, investors, legal experts and political leaders that have expressed concern that Sarbanes-Oxley has produced costly, unintended consequences that disproportionately affect smaller businesses, innovation and entrepreneurship," O'Brien Murray, executive director of the conservative Free Enterprise Fund, said in a statement.

Roughly 75% of all jobs are created by "small businesses" in this country. Making life more difficult for them makes it more difficult for millions of American families.

Careful what you wish for, you just might get it. Or, someone else might get it - right on the bottom line.