President Trump last week suggested on Truth Social that the Security and Exchange Commission should abolish the requirement to report earnings quarterly and instead move to semi-annual reporting. Though reforms are needed to strengthen our financial system, moving to semi-annual reporting is a step in the wrong direction.

Corporate chieftains would certainly cheer a switch to semi-annual reporting: shrouding corporate performance for longer periods of time heightens executives’ information advantage when trading their firm’s securities in their personal accounts. In particular, the public disclosure of bad news would take much longer, and executives would be able to sell stock far in advance of the revelation of trouble.

In an era where income inequality and CEO pay have already reached unprecedented levels, enabling top executives to further pad their net worth is exactly the wrong policy for our country.

In his tweet, Trump claimed that less frequent........

© The Hill