Robert D. Novak argued against the Sarbanes-Oxley Act ["Threat of the Auditors," op-ed, April 7] on the basis that it will take $35 billion this year for publicly held corporations to comply. That, he said, will have a deleterious effect on economic growth.
WorldCom stockholders saw the capitalized value of their assets fall from $180 billion to less than $7 billion in the past four years. That loss would take five years to recover at the rate of $35 billion per year, and that ignores fraudulent accounting operations and stock scams at Enron, Adelphia, HealthSouth and other companies.
Misallocation of investment resources through intentional misinformation has a negative effect on growth and future investment. Public trust is a good that publicly traded companies should be required to underwrite with their accounting fees.
JACK ROWER
Fairfax
