I’ve spent 30 years telling institutional clients the truth about their returns, good quarters and bad ones, because a manager who hides the losses eventually gets caught hiding the gains too. Performance reporting in my business runs on one rule. You publish what happened. Audited, comparable, embarrassing when it needs to be.

New York’s State Education Department just found a shortcut that no regulator offers a fund manager. When a rival’s numbers make the incumbent look bad, you don’t have to beat the rival. You can just turn off the scoreboard.