Those who have read A. A. Milne's works delight at Christopher Robin and his friends at Pooh Corner, including Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, and Roo. Milne's creation embraces happiness, friendship, peace, and enchantment. Often finding his friends in trouble, Christopher Robin comes to their rescue and heals the hurts.

After confirmation by the Senate, Christopher Cox will become the next chairman of the SEC. His world will not mirror Pooh Corner, because it will encompass unhappiness, rancor, contention, and disenchantment. When he notices lenders and investors in trouble, Christopher Cox will instead soothe the pangs and hurts of managers and directors and their professional advisers.

Representative Cox introduced into Congress the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the 1998 Securities Uniform Standards Act. The first bill made it more difficult for plaintiffs to file class action suits against business enterprises, corporate managers, and public auditors and curbed the awards when plaintiffs won. The second piece of legislation required class action lawsuits brought because of accounting issues to be filed in federal court. Because Congress made it much harder for plaintiffs to sue wayward managers, directors, and auditors and because it capped the awards, the Congress encouraged managers, directors, and auditors to pillage the rest of us, which in fact they proceeded to do.

When the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued its proposal to eliminate pooling of interests and require purchase accounting for all business combinations, Representative Cox launched a bill to delay its implementation. Introduced on October 3, 2000, the Fair Accounting for Intangibles Reexamination Act ("Fair"—ha!) would require a research study to examine the effects of the proposed accounting rule. The purpose was to defer the accounting statement forever and thwart improved accounting.

When FASB pushed through the expensing of stock options, Christopher Cox again attempted to derail FASB. He and others introduced HR 1372 on March 20, 2003, "Broad-Based Stock Option Plan Transparency Act." This bill would similarly delay implementation of any FASB promulgation while several research studies are carried out. The purpose again was to defer any accounting standard forever. The Congressman also demonstrated his ability to manipulate the English language by referring to this bill as a transparency act, when in fact the objective was to obscure any meaningful disclosure about the cost of stock options.

Some accounts have suggested that President Bush now regrets the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley. Given that it imposes huge costs on corporations with little benefits to investors, I sympathize with that view. Nevertheless, the way to fix the problem is to cancel Sarbanes-Oxley, not to choose a chairman who not only will nullify the major parts of Sarbanes-Oxley but also will quash accounting improvements and institutional changes and perhaps will slow down the enforcement process. To improve financial reporting and to encourage truth telling by managers, there is nothing like enforcement of the securities laws and class-action lawsuits. President Bush ought to strengthen these processes instead of appointing somebody like Cox.

A. A. Milne named the boy in the Pooh series after his son; however, Christopher Robin Milne grew to hate the books because of the taunting and teasing at boarding school. Even when he grew to adulthood, the younger Milne hated the books because he tired of the incessant interviews and questions. In the same way, Christopher Cox may one day regret the nomination to the SEC post. I, for one, promise to point out every anti-investor position and action he takes. Later, when the accounting scandals begin to increase, I promise to remind the world that Christopher Cox is to blame.

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J. EDWARD KETZ is accounting professor at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Ketz's teaching and research interests focus on financial accounting, accounting information systems, and accounting ethics. He is the author of Hidden Financial Risk, which explores the causes of recent accounting scandals.