ABSTRACT
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) increased steadily from a low of 7,286 in October 2002, shortly after the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals, to a peak of 14,043 in October 2007. Proponents of the SarbanesOxley Act of 2002 cited the stock market’s strong performance as evidence that the legislation had successfully restored investors’ confidence in the securities markets. But by March 2009, the DJIA had plunged more than 50 percent to 6,594,
losing 2,000 points in September 2008 alone. The stock market losses, combined with declining home values, caused American household net worth to decline almost 25 percent between the second quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2009. The national unemployment rate doubled from 4.4 percent in early 2004 to 8.9 percent in April 2009. President Barack Obama warned the nation during his first prime-time news conference after taking office: “This is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill recession. We are going through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”2
