Still 'Ain't No Glory in Pain': How the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and Other 1990s Deregulation Faciliated the Market Crash of 2002

Authors

andré douglas pond cummings, University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of LawFollow

Publication Date

2006

Abstract

This article investigates the various flaws inherent in two short-sighted Congressional enactments, The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA). The article concludes that the Telecommunications Act and the CFMA, together with various 1990s deregulation legislation, led in large part to the collapse of the U.S. capital markets in 2002.

The article continues a comprehensive review undertaken in the recently published Ain't No Glory In Pain: How the 1994 Republican Revolution, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Certain 1990s Deregulation Contributed to the Collapse of the Unites States' Capital Markets, 83 NEBRASKA L. REV. 979 (2005). While Congress was satiating the public with its hastily passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2003, which was enacted in response to the crushing corporate scandals visited upon the U.S. investing public in 2001-2002, it appeared that the market crash may have been enabled by Congressional rollback of important regulations in the 1990s. These articles conclude that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, the Telecommunications Act and the CFMA all played a sizeable role in the corporate malfeasance that led to the market collapse. The article carefully analyzes the Telecommunications Act and the CFMA and draws substantial connections between the provisions enacted therein and the impact those provisions had on the corporations that collapsed in a torrent of fraud and deceit in 2002.

The article concludes that until specific provisions of the Telecommunications Act are rescinded, the investing public will never be truly safe from malfeasant corporate executives.

Document Type

Article

Recommended Citation

andré douglas pond cummings, Still "Ain't No Glory in Pain" : How the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and Other 1990s Deregulation Facilitated the Market Crash of 2002, 12 Fordham J. Corp. & Fin. L. 467 (2007).