Every three months, thousands of public companies big and small report their earnings and give investors an update about how they are doing. Executives hate the practice: They say it’s expensive and laborious to compile the information — and leads companies to chase short-term wins rather than what’s good for their organization over the long run. Now President Trump is taking up their cause. In a social media post, he called for companies to report their earnings every six months, which he says would benefit the country. “This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies,” Trump said in his social media post. “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!!!” But some investor advocates and many finance experts reacted with alarm, saying less frequent disclosures will lead to less transparency because companies could withhold important information for up to six months. Prof. Salman Arif from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management says moving to reporting earnings twice a year could potentially lead to illegal activities by companies because there would be less chances for investors to scrutinize their financial numbers. “If we want to reduce accounting fraud, reduce opportunities for insider trading, improve the strength of our capital markets, and allow…Read more