Allison Schrager, Columnist

Earnings Reports Don’t Need to Be Quarterly

If less frequent reporting requirements lure some private companies into public markets, then it could help both businesses and investors alike.

September 16, 2025 at 10:00 AM UTC

By Allison Schrager

Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of “An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.”

Architecturally transparent.
Photographer: Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg

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Once again, the president is questioning what purpose is served by publicly traded companies issuing quarterly earnings reports. Not only did Donald Trump raise this issue back in 2018 — so did Barack Obama in 2015.

Which just goes to show that the arguments against quarterly financial reports are neither crazy nor new. It was not until 1970 that the US Securities and Exchange Commission required quarterly reporting, and it has not been required in the UK since 2014.