It's interesting that those who argue against the market say that corporations are always short-term oriented because they have to answer to shareholders at the end of every quarter. 'You just need to look at the incentives bro', they say.

Okay let's look at the incentives.

1. Quarterly results are mandated by the government if they are a public company. They are technically answering to the government, not the shareholders. They don't have incentives to make their operations and financials public.

2. Smaller listed companies are at a disadvantage because their financial strategies, which give them an edge in the market, are made public, thereby favouring competing bigger players who now have more ability to know how to bleed them dry. There are incentives for larger players to push for more and more transparency.

3. If companies are answerable to their shareholders on a quarterly basis, politicians are answerable to their donors on a 'legislative session basis'. They need to pass the laws. They need to award the contracts. They need to provide subsidies. Because elections cost money to win.

4. Regulators/Bureaucrats are answerable to their families and live paycheck to paycheck and also answerable to the finance ministry on an annual basis when the budget is drawn up. Lot of incentives to get extra suitcases of cash to do their job and to increase their scope of work so that they'll get a larger budget allocated to their respective departments. The bigger the budget, the more clout and power they have. The more suitcases they can get under the table as well. Efficient work means lesser allocation, department downsizing and potential loss of job. Less regulations means less suitcases that can be extracted.