Two Harveys May Bang Walls Over SEC Rules

Editor's Note: Jim Seymour's column runs exclusively on RealMoney.com; this is a special free look at his column. For a free trial subscription to RealMoney.com, click here. This article was published Feb. 14 on RealMoney.

I'd say the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to tighten the timeline reporting requirements for both insider trading and for companies to file quarterly and annual reports will be the closest thing to a lock among the agency's newly proposed reforms.

The former will cruise through the public hearings process and vote by the SEC on the current tide of presumed bad faith by corporate executives; the latter, because it isn't that hard to accomplish, and sounds like a self-evident good thing.

But neither likely will prove to be the more important change, a title reserved, I think, for the commission's revision of its list of significant events that have to be disclosed in 8-Ks, which -- if this passes -- will now include "changes in ratings agency decisions, obligations that are not currently disclosed and lock-out periods affecting employee stock-ownership plans." ...