Here is an excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article from December 15, 2021:

In addition to the executive-trading proposal, commissioners will vote on proposed changes to disclosures around stock buybacks by public companies, which are also hitting records this year.

Repurchases support stock prices by reducing the number of shares outstanding in a company, lifting the firms earnings per share. Like dividends, they enable companies to return cash to investors. But critics say buybacks allow executives who are partly paid in equity or options a roundabout way of boosting their own compensation at the expense of workers wages or productive investments.

The SECs proposal would require disclosures of stock buybacks to be more detailed and more frequent. Firms would have to describe the rationale for buybacks and the criteria used to determine the amount of shares to be repurchased.

Rather than disclosing monthly share repurchases once per quarter, companies would have to report buybacks on the next business day. The proposal would also require firms to indicate whether any executives bought or sold shares within 10 business days of the announcement of a buyback program.

SEC officials said one goal of the proposal is to help investors determine whether there is any connection between a companys stock-buyback program and executive compensation.

Ms. Peirce and Mr. Roisman said they wouldnt support the proposed changes around buybacks, while the commissions three Democrats said they would.

Say dividend, and nobody gets angry, but say share buyback, and the rage boils over, Ms. Peirce said. Todays proposal channels some of that rage against repurchases in a way that only a regulator can: through painfully granular, unnecessarily frequent disclosure obligations.

Instructions: Discuss the pros and cons of the SEC's proposal to require more timely disclosure of stock buybacks by corporations.