Commentary: Trump wants to let companies make fewer disclosures, thus keeping investors in the dark

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Set us as preferred This being the “information age,” it would be understandable if investors sometimes feel inundated with too much information to wade through about the stocks in their mutual fund portfolios.The Securities and Exchange Commission, bowing like a puppy to the urgings of President Trump, is considering exactly the wrong solution to this supposed burden.

It’s proposing to allow public companies to give their investors less information, as though that’s a good thing.On May 8, the SEC proposed rescinding its mandate that public companies report financial results on a quarterly schedule.Instead, it suggests, semiannual and annual reports should suffice.

This takes an already-unlevel playing field where Main Street investors are already disadvantaged, and makes it more unlevel.— Dennis Kelleher, Better MarketsThe SEC left its proposal open for public comment for 60 days, meaning the window closed Monday.By then, the agency had received more than 68,000 comments, according to a tracker posted online by accounting professor Tzachi Zach of Ohio State.

Almost 99.9% of the comments were negative.Several organizations of institutional investors and auditing professionals, as well as a tsunami of individual investors, expressed opposition.

Commentary on economics and more from a Pulitzer Prize winner.By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service, which include arbitration and a class action waiver.

You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy such as personalizing your experience and ads.A similar initiative the SEC aired in 2018, during Trump’s first term, received an overwhelmingly negative response and was eventually dropped.The tide of opposition coming ...