The (negative) power of quarterly reports

All the turmoil we are seeing in the markets lately are, in my opinion, caused by short term thinking. CEOs are so tied to short term quarterly thinking they are willing to do anything to make their companies look better. This includes over leveraging and huge debt burdens which look nice on paper, but are really just the tip of a giant ice burg. Then Wall street only really looks at the quarterly numbers and doesn't really rate a company on it's long term viability, only on its most recent quarter. Completely missing the 90% of the iceberg below the surface.

This seems really strange to me. I wish there was another financial report for the sane people in the world. Every year a company should have to come out with a "ten year report". If I could see one of those every year I would have a lot more confidence in these companies as I would at least feel like they are thinking of long term survival. Thinking for the long term, just like I want to invest for the long term. Then all bonuses should be tied to ten year results. This golden parachute thing is ridiculous. You get a bonus even though you caused the company to tank a few years later? What kind of mindless knucklehead thought of that?

So, what we really need to keep our economy on track is a long term mindset. A yearly "ten year report" and all executive bonuses time to the companies financials ten years in the future. Wow, I would go "all in" with a company like that!