I’ve been listening to Aquired recently (podcast about company origin stories) and when talking about privately owned companies (for instance, the recently Mars Inc. episode) they always do back of napkin estimated earnings because the company is private, which apparantly means they don’t have to disclose earnings.
But in my country, Denmark, every company earning above 50.000 DKK (=7853 USD) has to disclose earnings. I believe this is for price discovery purposes, so that other entrepreneurs can see how much margin companies have and try to compete if they earn too much money, which is an important part of capitalism, right?
How come this is not required in USA, the “home” of capitalism? If I’m not mistaken of course, my apologies if so.
I dont know why, but the US is definitely the home of pure unadulterated capitalism, no air quotes needed. Why would private entities need to disclose anything to public interest? There is no reason to add competition to the market, most that try get bought up or sued out of business.
I know nothing about any of this except capitals sole interest is to make any money as easily or as shady as inhumanely possible.
There is a refrain that there is only one true law in the USA: “Line (investment returns) must go up.” Nothing else truly matters in the grand scheme of the financial ecosystem. If an investor cannot throw their money into an investment fund broker like Vanguard, BlackRock, or State Street and get steady returns, it’s time to panic and bail. (See 2008, or 2020).