What is the The Necessity of Quarterly Earnings?

Executive Summary

• Quarterly earnings are a feature of a financialized economy. They place companies under the yoke of the quarterly cycle.

Introduction

Public companies are required to publish their earnings quarterly, and in the US, all companies are required to estimate and pay taxes quarterly. This places great inefficiency into the system, as companies often race to put their books in order and to maximize their booked revenue for the quarter. However, this is based upon the need to collect taxes (which goes away under a public-private bank), and the stock market (which could be eliminated with a public central bank and national banking), that loans money at no interest.