Jack Welch Was Right: Quarterly Earnings Theater Is Dumb

“You have to be an idiot to miss a Wall Street estimate.”

This was Jack Welch’s 2¢ on quarterly earnings expectations—part of the mandatory opening of the books public companies do every 90 days. Businesses have long decried the regulatory requirement as onerous, expensive and something that hangs over every decision they make like the mythological sword of Damocles.

It looks as if their pleas have finally been answered. Paul Atkins, US Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, recently announced a proposal to scrap quarterly earnings and, instead, require public companies to disclose financials only twice a year.

Welch speaking during a news conference in 2020.

Photographer: Chris Hondros/Getty Images