US business leader criticizes short-term earnings forecasts

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The head of the US Chamber of Commerce challenged US companies and analysts to end the practice of quarterly earnings forecasts, saying this encourages a "short-term mindset" that hurts US competitiveness.

"I want to start a stampede away from quarterly earnings guidance altogether," chamber president and chief executive Thomas Donohue said at a Wall Street analyst forum in New York, in remarks released by the Chamber.

"There is something fundamentally out of balance when short-term considerations become so dominant -- and so ingrained not only on Wall Street but in corporate America -- that the long-term view is lost."

"The earnings guidance game" creates a "short-term mindset," Donohue said.

"I would argue that today, short-term...