my mentor and former partner, john huber, used a memorable anecdote to contrast disclosure with merit regulation. john is well-known for a distinguished career and his distinguished service as director of the s.e.c.'s division of corporation finance, a disclosure regulator. but earlier in his career, he worked for a state securities commission, a merit regulator. his co-workers proudly refused to approve the shares of an untested, upstart company whose name today everyone in this room would recognize. they had rejected that company's request to sell shares to residents of their state, because the ceo's compensation was too high. what was the ipo price, john asked them? answer, $22 per share. well, john responded to his colleagues, the stock is now trading at $60 per share, so how exactly did we help investors in our state by preventing them from buying at $22? that anecdote sums upper writ regulation, and it highlights the benefits of a disclosure regime that let's investors choose the winners and losers. the third point i want to make is about disclosure, and what information compani