The Valuation Treadmill is a history of securities fraud regulation in the United States from the 1960s to the present. Drawing on case studies of paradigmatic securities enforcement actions involving Xerox, Penn Central, Apple, Enron, Citigroup, and General Electric, the book argues that corporate securities fraud emerged as a major regulatory concern as investors increasingly valued companies based on their future performance. It contends that the structural pressure on public companies to meet short-term projections necessitates structural responses such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.