Imagine having to prepare for a colonoscopy four times a year.

Now imagine approximately 4,000 chief financial officers doing that — all at once — every quarter. Welcome to earnings season.

For more than 50 years, quarterly reporting has been the metronome of U.S. financial markets. Like daylight savings or Thanksgiving arguments, it is baked into our economic rhythm.

Every three months, public companies must bare their financial souls to investors, analysts, competitors and journalists hungry to scrutinize margins and future guidance.

But now, an old idea has resurfaced: ditch quarterly earnings and move to semiannual disclosures . At first glance, the proposal sounds reasonable.

President Donald Trump recently resurrected the idea , echoing earlier musings from his first term

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