Petter Osmundsen, a petroleum economist who teaches at Stavanger University in Norway, suggests another: excessive focus on short-term measures of financial performance, which discouraged firms from making long-term bets on growth and encouraged them to dish out their profits to shareholders instead in the form of increased dividends and share buybacks.
But for a better reduction in animal suffering, PETA should focus more on combating short-sighted decisions like novelty gifts rather than staging Manhattan publicity stunts likely to have small impact on total fur production.
Because Wall St. often rewards cost cutting measures with a temporary bump in stock price, fiscally conservative CEOs tend to focus on short-term benefits for all the wrong reasons.
"Using ultra-short light pulses gives us the ability to focus in a well confined region and the ability for intense radiation, " said Parigger.
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Last week on CNBC, John Silvia, chief economist for Wells Fargo Securities, asked me how, as a disciple of asset allocation, I help my clients focus on the long-term goal in the face of such dramatic short-term volatility.
What happens in these cases is that the entrepreneur begins to focus solely on the short-term.
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"It's easy to get a very short-term focus because of the opportunity that is right in front of us, " he says.
The uptick rule, which has been the focus of much discussion after it was repealed in 2007, banned short-selling unless the sale price was higher than the last different price.
In the document former Institute of Directors boss Sir George Cox said overcoming a focus on short-term gains was the only way to ensure success.
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Unlike many rivals, which often focus on short-term results and oil-price movements, Exxon invests in or walks away from projects based on long-term returns on capital assuming moderate oil prices.
The ECB would focus any such programs on the acquisition of short-term debt and, unlike in the past, it would state how much it was purchasing.
More generally, focus on policies that boost economic growth: trade less austerity in the short term for medium-term adjustments, such as a higher retirement age.
In this case, the focus was more on the trading of the unregistered securities than on the naked short-selling.
In advising clients with a long-term focus, Warne and Edward Jones try not to give too much weight to short-term factors.
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It will take a board of directors that can overcome internal schisms, its natural aversion to risk and a focus on the next quarter and similar pressures by short-term investors to put its faith in the kind of leader who can be a positive force for change.
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