Has Sarbanes-Oxley succeeded in cleaning up corporate financial scandals? I note that restatements, a sign of malfeasance, seemed to be declining until recently. See (for 2006): http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8769763/c_8766684?f=home_todayinfinance and http://seekingalpha.com/article/121298-u-s-financial-restatements-down-almost-a-third-in-2008 for somewhat more recent performance. The two "Big Number" postings are much more recent. If you think that Sarbanes-Oxley has been effective, why weren't the financial institution problems uncovered under audit, before they collapsed in 2008? All major financial institutions regulated by the SEC (i.e., public companies other than Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including Bear-Stearns, Lehman, and AIG) had clean financial and Section 404 audits in their most recent year before collapse. My friend Alex Pollock wrote a paper on the topic for the American Enterprise Institute, which I have attached. The impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on small firms is discussed at http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/10599373/1/c_10600075?f=TodayInFinance013008. The article is somewhat dated, but the material is of some use in understanding how Sarbanes-Oxley interacts with real businesses