[christophilus]

Public companies have an incentive to focus on the short term (quarterly reports). This really makes a difference in management behavior. Bill Clinton and Warren Buffett have both talked about this, and presented regulatory approaches to fixing it, but here we are.

[mensetmanusman]

Clinton’s attempt was so watered down it accelerated executive pay increases: https://ips-dc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/IPS-report-on-...

[hgsgm]

> Public companies have an incentive to focus on the short term (quarterly reports).

Why?

Incentivized by whom? This is choice they make. See the OP.

[NickC25]

Incentivized by the stock market.

If you go on an investor call as the CEO and said, "hey we didn't make any profits this quarter because we invested it all into projects that will grow our revenue X% in the next quarter or half" you'll get fired by the board very quickly, or an activist fund will buy up shares and vote you out as quickly as they can.