Well... Here we go again.  Crisis around you, companies failing due to crashing asset values - Enron, right?  No, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Fannie, Freddie, whose next???



Will anyone go to jail this time?  How many fraudulent statements have been made by CEOs and CFOs about the financial condition of their companies only to be contradicted a few days later with the filing of Ch 11 of their company or major write downs of assets?  Where is the SEC is all this mess?



As an avid investor in the stock market, I have been closely following the saga of many of these companies in the past few months.  As an 'average investor' whom Sarbanes-Oxley was supposed to protect, it feels like the CEOs of these major investment banks have been lying through their teeth.  While I have no doubt their lawyers carefully crafted their words to protect them in a court of law, I do have doubt they told the truth to the extent that Congress would have expected when they passed Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002. 



Further, our administration officials are no better than the Wall Street execs.  Either they are lying through their teeth to 'soothe' the nerves of the American public or they are no smarter than I and don't deserve the posts in which they serve.



From the outside looking in, it appears to me that SOX has done NOTHING to restore the confidence in our financial system unless we see a few of these CEOs get thrown in jail.  Time will tell...