Repeal

Abstract: The primary goal of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was to fix auditing of U.S. public companies, consistent with its full, official name: the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. By consensus, auditing had been working poorly, and increasingly so. The most important, and most promising, part of Sarbanes-Oxley was the creation of a unique, quasi-public institution to oversee and regulate auditing, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). In controversial section 404, the law also created new disclosure-based incentives for firms to spend money on internal controls, above increases that would have occurred after the corporate scandals of the early 2000s. In exchange for these higher costs, which have already fallen substantially, Sarbanes-Oxley promises a variety of long-term benefits. Investors will face a lower risk of losses from fraud and theft, and benefit from more reliable financial reporting, greater transparency, and accountability. Public companies will pay a lower cost of capital, and the economy will benefit because of a better allocation of resources and faster growth. Sarbanes-Oxley remains a work in progress -- section 404 in particular was implemented too aggressively - but reformers should push for continued improvements in its implementation, by PCAOB, rather than for repeal of the legislation itself.

Abstract: Preface Introduction Part I. Prostitution, Social Science and Venereal Disease: 1. The common prostitute in Victorian Britain 2. Social science and the great social evil 3. Venereal disease Part II. The Contagious Diseases Acts, Regulationists and Repealers: 4. The Contagious Diseases Acts and their advocates 5. The repeal campaign 6. The leadership of the Ladies' National Association 7. Class and gender conflict within the repeal movement Part III. Two Case Studies: Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts: 8. Plymouth and Southampton under the Contagious Diseases Acts 9. The repeal campaign in Plymouth and Southampton 1870-4 10. The making of an outcast group: prostitutes and working women in Plymouth and Southampton 11. The hospitals 12. The local repeal campaign, 1874-86 Epilog Notes Selected bibliography Index.

Abstract: Enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) in November 1999 effectively repealed the long-standing prohibitions on the mixing of banking with securities or insurance businesses and thus permits "broad banking." We attribute repeal of these prohibitions to the increasingly persuasive evidence from academic studies of the pre-Glass-Steagall era, the recent favorable experience in the United States following partial deregulation of banking activities, the experience of banking systems abroad with broader scopes for banking activities, and rapid technological change in telecommunications and data processing. How regulators will in practice coordinate their efforts so that the safety and soundness of the banking system is maintained efficiently remains to be seen.

Abstract: Competition between organizational forms manifests itself in political contention over the law. The authors analyze the political strength and organization of the groups that supported and opposed state anti‐chain‐store laws. The enactment of these laws depended on intrastate political activity and the interstate diffusion of anti‐chain‐store legislation. The repeal process relied on suprastate activity, as nationally organized pro‐chain‐store forces shifted the arena of contention to the Supreme Court and forged national alliances with labor unions and agricultural cooperatives. In both enactment and repeal, the political resources and strategies of organziational forms interacted with existing institutions to determine the trajectory of institutional change.