Trump’s SEC Plan: Genius or 🤪?

A most peculiar ripple disturbed the placid pond of financial regulation yesterday, instigated, as so often happens, by the former Maestro of Mar-a-Lago. Mr. Trump, with a characteristic flair for the dramatic (and a seeming disregard for the subtleties of fiduciary duty), has once again exhorted the Securities and Exchange Commission to abandon its quarterly ritual of corporate confession.

He Finds Quarterly Reports…Distasteful?

The phenomenon, let us call it “Trump’s Semi-Annual Yearning,” re-emerged, not in a meticulously crafted policy paper, but via a pronouncement on that digital echo chamber known as Truth Social. On the 15th of September, the missive arrived:

Subject to SEC approval (a rather significant caveat, one notes), companies and corporations should no longer be ‘forced’ – the quotation marks practically bristling with resentment – to ‘report’ on a quarterly basis (quarterly reporting!), but rather to report on a ‘six (6) month basis.’

The current arrangement, a thrice-yearly pilgrimage to the altar of Form 10-Q, supplementing the grander, annual 10-K, is a mechanism to drip-feed investors with tidbits of performance and, more importantly, potential pitfalls. It encompasses the entirety of the corporate bestiary – banks, tech sprites, energy behemoths, and the manufacturers of things we scarcely understand.

This isn’t a novel obsession, you see. During his previous tenure, the idea was bandied about, floated like a particularly ostentatious inflatable swan. But, alas, no actual rule-bending occurred. One suspects the SEC was too busy counting the petals on already existing regulations. He proposes, with a charmingly simplistic eagerness, that this will “save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies.” As if quarterly reports were the sole impediment to corporate competence. 🤔

Previous pleas to the SEC for a formal study of this matter yielded…well, nothing much. It highlights a deliciously contentious debate: does frequent scrutiny invite accountability, or merely discourage thinking beyond the nearest dividend payment?

And here, the narrative takes a turn towards the delightfully absurd. Mr. Trump, in his wisdom, points to the Chinese model – a society not exactly renowned for its radical transparency – as a paragon of long-term vision. His observation, delivered with characteristic bluntness:

Did you ever hear the statement that, ‘China has a 50 to 100 year view on management of a company, whereas we run our companies on a quarterly basis???’ Not good!!!

The implication, of course, is that American firms are hobbled by an obsession with the immediate. Some captains of industry murmur their agreement – less paperwork, less fuss. But the guardians of shareholder value, those intrepid investor advocates, remain unconvinced. They cling, with admirable tenacity, to the notion that quarterly updates are…useful. 🤷‍♀️ One wonders if they’ve considered the sheer *poetry* of a biannual report. Such spaciousness! Such room for contemplation!

2025-09-16 03:58

He Finds Quarterly Reports…Distasteful?

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