Does the SEC focus on the right things?

This article presents an argument that the SEC, in its attempts to control corporate information disclosure, too often focuses on discrete bits of information as the driving source of investment determinations, and in doing so runs the danger of overlooking the fluid and constantly changing nature of the economy, information flow, and investors’ methods for assessing their risks and making investment decisions. The author questions whether the SEC provides value for money; and whether its greatest strength ‐ the channeling of information for the use of investors through an agreed process of corporate reports and public releases ‐ may be its greatest flaw and sometimes may lead it to focus on the wrong things.