That leaves me with one more observation that I have been wanting to make for some time. It is kind of a bone to pick with accounting and financial results. There has been discussion of GAAP and non-GAAP results and the pros and cons of each. But at a more fundamental level, there is a basic problem with accounting of any kind. Accounting attempts to show the health of a business by converting all real world product development, marketing skill, production efficiency, management skill, etc., etc., into dollar terms. All this enormous complexity and capitalistic competition is rendered into a few pages of numbers with dollar signs attached. That is o.k., I suppose, for bankers or maybe for value investors. But what happens next is that analysts and investors then pour over the numbers, and like witch doctors delving through chicken entrails, try to reconstruct the reality of the business (product development, marketing skill, production efficiency management skill, capitalistic competition….) and predict future results more accurately than several hundred others who are fingering the same entrails.
I love it KC!.. But the trouble is: What else do we have that is better?
Saul