Jay Clayton is tired, you guys. So very, very tired. It’s not just that he’s worked harder over the last few months than he had in three years, or possibly longer. It’s that the work has been grueling, thankless and without the reward he was promised at the end of it. He could hardly have made this more clear, what with the pouting and throwing up of hands and literal counting of the days he has to stay SEC chairman. He simply can’t be bothered to do very much, aside perhaps from adding a bit more fuel to the Chinese trade war dumpster fire for warmth in this tremendously cold winter, as least for him and his ilk, so would America’s corporate executives and directors—especially those with a hand in, you know, lucratively saving the world—do him a solid and just cool it with the brazen and suspiciously-timed profit taking, if just for a few months, until this is Allison Lee’s or Preet Bharara’s or Gary Gensler’s problem?
Mr. Clayton called for a “cooling-off period” for so-called 10b5-1 plans, which allow company executives to sell stock at a predetermined time—even if they are in possession of important nonpublic information—without exposing themselves to insider-trading charges….
“For senior executive officers using 10b5-1 plans to sell stock, I do believe that a cooling-off period from the time that the plan is put in place or is materially changed, until the first transaction, is appropriate,” Mr. Clayton said at a Senate hearing. “Whether that’s four months so you cover a full quarter, or it’s six months—I can make arguments for either. I do think we should do it.”
Mr. Clayton also urged companies to use “additional hygiene” around stock buybacks to avoid the potential for insider trading.
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