Blackbelt 404.

Q: According to Alan Greenspan, what do Alan Greenspan and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have in common?

A: The time has past for both to call it quits.

The Boston Herald reports:

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told a Boston business audience last night that most of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance rules enacted in 2002 had become a "nightmare" and should be scrapped as soon as possible.

Greenspan, who in his 18 years running the Fed earned a reputation for speaking cautiously, raised eyebrows with several unusually frank remarks in an hourlong discussion in front of 800 members of the Mass. Technology Leadership Council.

The legendary former Fed chief said the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations hampered business, discouraged risk-taking and were driving foreign companies to shun the New York Stock Exchange for the lighter rules in London.

The only part he praised was the rule that chief executives had to certify their companies' accounts personally.

"The rest we could do without," he said.

Right, except Greenspan does not tell us how in the world chief executives would be able to personally certify that their accounts are accurate without the rest of SOX. Everyone agrees SOX has to be revamped, but to expect chief officers to be personally responsible for the financials of their institutions without anything to back their signature up is not sensible or productive.