Its primary aim is to improve internal controls for financial reporting by establishing mandatory requirements for assessing risks to information system vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited.

That includes mandatory quarterly reporting — listed companies now have to report earnings only twice a year — and a ban on share trading by company insiders ahead of results announcements.

Yet necessary public-health interventions are by nature paternalistic: think fluoridation of municipal water supplies, compulsory vaccinations and mandatory reporting of communicable diseases.