Should we ditch quarterly earnings reports?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Quarterly earnings reports are a long-standing requirement for public companies in the U.S. But the Trump administration wants to axe quarterly releases and just release them twice a year. And there is evidence to suggest this could be better in the long run for companies and investors. On today’s show, we look at the potential benefits and trade-offs of changing how often companies report their financial results.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. It is a time, honor tradition in corporate America. Every three months, executives from public
0:17.7	companies get on a conference call to talk about how much money they made in the last quarter.
0:23.0	And the calls are all kind of the same. There's hold music. Then an operator announces the call is starting.
0:30.6	Welcome to the conference call. The CEO reads some prepared remarks. And then executives take questions from Wall Street analysts. The questions
0:40.0	usually sound something like this. Yeah, thanks very much, guys. Appreciate all the color as usual.
0:45.7	I guess I was hoping for some more color on your color. Just wanted to get a little bit of color there.
0:50.9	It just seems a little bit. Could you maybe give us some color on that? Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.
0:56.3	The color just drained from my face right now listening to that. You weren't feeling inspired?
1:03.0	No. Okay. I live for quarterly earnings. It's not the most riveting stuff. But companies talking about their financial results is important for the stock market.
1:14.2	This information helps investors make decisions about where to put their money.
1:18.0	And if that investor is a company that manages a retirement fund, for example, then it's your money at stake.
1:24.4	But how often should companies be reporting their earnings? President Trump is pushing
1:29.3	regulators to get rid of quarterly earnings and release them just twice a year. This is the
1:36.3	indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darien Woods. And I'm Waylon Wong. There is evidence that less
1:41.6	frequent reporting can be better in the long run for companies and their shareholders.
1:46.3	But there are also tradeoffs.
1:48.3	Today on the show, we give you some color on this ongoing debate.
1:54.0	I won it that way was a Backstreet Boys banger, but was it also a secret economics lesson?
1:59.3	If you watch the music video, you can really see an illustration of the concept of comparative advantage.
2:05.1	All right.
2:05.5	In our most recent bonus episode, we compete to see who can pick the most Planet Money song, movie, and more from 1999.
2:13.3	It's our first ever Planet Money pop culture draft, and you can hear it and support our work by signing up for NPR Plus at plus.npr.org.
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