NOW & THEN: Greenspan on Corporate Reform

There's really nothing like a politician gloating about the "success" of legislation they themselves did everything possible to weaken and destroy on behalf of Corporate America.

NOW:
Under the headline "Greenspan Praises Corporate Governance Law" the Financial Times reports Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said, "The act importantly reinforced the principle that shareholders own our corporations and that corporate managers should be working on behalf of shareholders to allocate business resources to their optimum use."

THEN:
As Congress was moving to enact strong corporate governance laws in 2002, the 7/19/02 Akron Beacon Journal noted that in official testimony, Greenspan "warned Congress to avoid an infectious response of its own, one that would produce an overrection to the corporate misdeeds." Thanks, in part, to Greenspan, the Sarbanes-Oxley bill was riddled with loopholes. Yet, apparently, that wasn't enough for Greenspan. He continued his efforts to eliminate serious corporate oversight. On 9/26/02 the London Independent reported that Greenspan gave a speech "warn[ing] against overregulation in financial markets despite corporate scandals such as Enron and WorldCom...[his] remarks ran counter to the prevailing mood that increased regulation and greater transparency are necessary to improve financial systems and lead to more stable wealth creation." Now, there are grumblings that the law could be further weakened.