Excerpt: "In all of the commentary about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, not much attention has focused on the act's creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). This entity has some truly unique and troubling features. Although it was established by congressional legislation, it is a District of Columbia not-for-profit corporation, not a government agency. It is supposed to be a self-regulatory organization for the auditing activities of the accounting industry, but it is not supported by the industry it regulates; instead, it was authorized by Congress to fund itself by levying fees on all public companies--essentially a tax on the economy as a whole."

SOX in my experience has gotten way out of hand and I'm only seeing the tip of it in my work. It's not bad in concept but the current implementation, and the people doing the enforcement, are all out of whack. This article covers a major component of it. Cheers, -Pk