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Companies are sticking to a practice that Warren Buffett and other business titans warn is damaging the economy

Warren Buffett has long said short-termism is bad for companies, but many didn't seem to concur last year.

Companies on the S&P 500 issued quarterly earnings guidance 444 times in 2017, the most since 2008, according to a report by S&P Global Market Intelligence released on Thursday.

Forward guidance remains a cornerstone of the quarterly ritual of earnings reporting. Unlike their results, public companies are not required by law to give investors hard estimates for the future. But many companies do so anyway to give analysts and shareholders a sense of their outlook and sometimes by popular demand.

But Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has refrained from this practice. In fact, his company's earnings statements are so unorthodox that they don't include any quotes from him or other executives, which he reserves for his annual letter and shareholder meeting.

Personal Capital, a financial planning website, appears to be gearing up for an IPO

Personal Capital, a financial site that allows users to connect all of their accounts to see their money in one cohesive dashboard, appears to be gearing up for an initial public offering.

The company published a job listing on Wednesday afternoon seeking a "Manager of SEC Reporting & Technical Accounting" in its Redwood Shores, California headquarters. According to the posting, this person "is responsible for providing technical expertise and support for the SEC filing and compliance related reporting and technical accounting functions for a pre-IPO company."

The person will also lead preparation of regulatory filings required of companies to list publicly on a stock exchange, it said.

Goldman Sachs has finally rehabbed its reputation, 10 years after the financial crisis

Once called a "great vampire squid" in the depths of the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs' image has recovered in the last 10 years.

Slightly more American adults would now feel "proud" to work for the Wall Street giant, as opposed to "embarrassed," according to new data from YouGov's Plan & Track, a research firm tracking brand awareness and perception.

This change comes after the firm's reputation score - which gauges how open US consumers aged 18 and up are to being employed at a particular brand - spent years emerging from negative territory following the financial crisis, the data shows.

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