We recently talked about succession in the media industry when Rupert Murdoch stepped aside at Fox. Today we’re doing succession in banking. There’s one thing Morgan Stanley’s new CEO has in common with Logan Roy, though. Swearing. Lots and lots of swearing.

The lowdown

• 🪧 UAW and Ford reach a tentative deal to end the auto workers' strike.

• 🌧️ Alphabet falls in late trading after cloud revenues miss expectations.

• 🚘 Stellantis is buying 20% of Chinese EV maker Leapmotor in a $1.6 billion deal.

Flex your finance muscle 💪

The terms you really should know

A lot of you are really taking “fake it til you make it” to heart. Some 42% of finance workers are embarrassed to admit they don’t understand terminology at work, according to the Association of Accounting Technicians. Instead, they’re using Google (63%), AI (45%), or just pretending they understand (25%).

For the benefit of the silent types among you, here are the five terms that finance workers most struggle with, explained:

• EBITDA. One of the widely used measures of profitability, and therefore a business’s health. Take your net income then add interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

• Liquidity ratio. A measure of whether a company can pay off its debts without raising more money. Commons types of liquidity ratio include the current ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) and day sales outstanding (average accounts receivable divided by revenue per day).

• Leverage ratio. A measure of how much of a company’s capital is debt. Examples include the debt-to-equity ratio (total liabilities divided by total shareholder equity) and the equity multiplier (total assets divided by total equity). Too much debt can be dangerous, but too little can be a missed opportunity to fuel growth.

• Accrual accounting. An accounting method that records revenues and expenses when a sale is made. By comparison, cash accounting records them when payment is made or received.

• Treasury management. The process of managing an organization’s financial resources to reach its strategic and operational goals. This includes everything from day-to-day cash management to investment management and trade finance. Treasury management is important because it allows your organization to optimize financial resources and manage financial risks effectively. For example, making sure you have enough cash to meet short-term obligations while investing in long-term growth.

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Ted Pick named next CEO of Morgan Stanley

“Shortly before 5pm on Wednesday, Morgan Stanley co-President Ted Pick was asked to join his boss in the boardroom,” writes Bloomberg ($). He was met with a standing ovation and told he had been chosen as the bank’s next CEO. You can’t say Wall Street doesn’t love a bit of reality TV-style drama.

Pick is a 33-year veteran of Morgan Stanley and currently leads the company's institutional securities division. “He's right out of central casting,” one employee told Insider. “Say, ‘Give me a Wall Street guy,’ and they will give you Ted Pick.”

Pick will take over from James Gorman in January at a comparably stable time for the bank. Gorman led Morgan Stanley through the aftermath of the financial crisis – when some doubted the bank would survive – and onto a stronger footing. Pick was also part of that success story: he’s credited with reviving Morgan Stanley’s trading business.

In his new role, Pick might have to watch his language. The Wall Street Journal previously reported ($) that former CEO John Mack would prank him by asking the compliance department to flag his emails for excessive use of expletives.

The content we're consuming today

• Bloomberg: Debt and scandal throw billionaire Drahi’s empire into turmoil ($)

• Insider: The race to create the ‘Amazon of real estate' could change homebuying forever

• Inc: What business leaders struggling to respond publicly to the Israel-Hamas conflict should say

Off-balance sheet items

• Here are 200 business books condensed into 11 principles.

The bottom line