FEI Weekly

November 8, 2019

New non-GAAP Target, work big to small and pensions pushing risk

“Adjusted Revenue” In SEC Crosshairs

MarketWatch

San Francisco-based payment provider Square said it would not continue to include a non-GAAP metric, adjusted revenue, in its quarterly reports going forward. The company, run by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, had received a comment letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission and follow-up communications on the practice. Former SEC Deputy Chief Accountant, Wesley Bricker, singled out adjusted revenue last year as a special concern for the regulator.

Baby Steps Are the Best Steps

Kellogg Insight

New research shows that you and your organization lose out when you procrastinate on the difficult stuff. Managers should encourage workers to tackle difficult tasks and break projects into bite-sized pieces so that employees still get the satisfaction of completing each step. Breaking down complex projects into small milestones can help give workers the completion high they get from easy tasks while still supplying the challenge and opportunities for development.

Cease Fire In Trade War

Politico

The United States and China agreed to roll back existing tariffs as part of a “phase one” trade deal. China and the U.S. had extensive and serious discussions over the past two weeks to try to end their trade war, and the agreement would help stabilize the world economy. An interim trade deal is expected to include a U.S. pledge to scrap tariffs scheduled for December 15 on about $156 billion worth of Chinese imports and China is expected to buy more U.S. agricultural products, open up its financial markets and address restrictions on genetically modified American food.

Pensions, 401k Investors Creating Bubble

Institutional Investor

Ultra-low interest rates have “warped” financial markets, prompting institutional investors to increase their risk-taking, according to one money manager. Howard Marks Oaktree Capital Management says 401k investors are flocking to alternative assets for yield they can’t hope to find in high-grade bonds, and pension funds -- struggling to meet targeted returns of around seven percent -- have been pouring capital in riskier areas such as private equity, venture capital and private debt.

Book Smart or Street Smart? You Can Be Both

Medium

How do we gain knowledge about the world? Rationalism says that it comes from our thoughts (from language, reason, and mathematics), whereas empiricism says that it comes from our senses (from observations, habit-patterns, and intuitions]. There is better way to look at this is to distinguish between knowledge and wisdom, and there are changes you can make to move away from the rationalist-empiricist dichotomy.