The JOBS Act will very nearly legalize fraud in the stock market
Researching and writing about Goldman pushed Taibbi around the bend on anything having to do with finance.A few tidbits:
Even worse, the JOBS Act, incredibly, will allow executives to give "pre-prospectus" presentations to investors using PowerPoint and other tools in which they will not be held liable for misrepresentations. These firms will still be obligated to submit prospectuses before their IPOs, and they'll still be held liable for what's in those. But it'll be up to the investor to check and make sure that the prospectus matches the "pre-presentation."Oh my gosh - you mean before I invest my hard earned money I should read the PROSPECTUS.  Say it ain't so.Then he goes on to say:
In the same way, get ready for an avalanche of shareholder suits ten years from now, since post-factum civil litigation will be the only real regulation of the startup market. In fact, there are already supporters talking up future lawsuits as an appropriate tool to replace the regulations being wiped out by this bill.Isn't "post-factum civil litigation" an even better mechanism for enforcement?Look companies that are "bad actors" are going to cheat the SEC and the public anyway, and companies that aren't "bad actors" had to go through the additional expenses to comply with the SEC regs that have now been relaxed.I would rather have motivated shareholders (and their lawyers) with an axe to grind policing the markets than bureaucrats.  If you look at the job bureaucrats have done to date,the track record is not so great.Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-obam...