JOBS Act

When streamlining stock regulation
With the goal of employment creation,
The access to mammon
May jumpstart the scammin'
By persons of low reputation.

Washington has descended to the point where, if you see bipartisan agreement on any economic issue, you have to suspect the worst. Such is the case with the so-called JOBS Act (Jumpstart Our Business Startups). In her Bloomberg column, Susan Antilla writes: "Though the JOBS Act was packaged as a plan to streamline rules to help small companies crank out jobs, even its cheerleaders have come up with scant evidence the law will boost employment much, if at all. In an election year when pragmatic politicians are laboring to come off as allies of deep-pocketed business donors, the JOBS Act is a slapdash attempt at securities-law deregulation, plain and simple."

Remember the ZZZZ Best carpet-cleaning company, one of the most notorious investment frauds of the '80's? One of the perpetrators of that fraud says: “I wish legislators would consult with people like me before they write something like this. I could tell them, ‘I know what your intent was with this wording, but we can get around it so easily, it cracks me up.”’ Mark Morze, a self-described reformed scammer who now lectures on how to guard against people like himself, gives his expert opinion that the JOBS Act has real potential for abuse.

Hat tip to Jordan Terry a.k.a. @The_Analyst.