The Trial Balance is CFO.com’s weekly preview of stories, stats and events to help you prepare.
Part 1 — Defense Department adds new CFO as fiscal pressure and tariff questions mount
What some would consider one of the most complex and impactful CFO jobs on earth has now been filled.
The Department of Defense, whose name is currently undergoing a politicized nomenclature transition to the Department of War, appointed Tom Harker as deputy CFO last week. Harker announced the transition via a LinkedIn post. He succeeds Mike McCord, who stepped down from the role in January 2025 after holding the role since June 2021. He was the first person to be confirmed to the position twice.
Jeffrey Bornstein, the former CFO of GE, was lined up to take the position up until late last month when President Trump withdrew his nomination. Jules Hurst III has been serving in the position in an interim status. Harker’s addition brings a leader with extensive government finance experience, and also comes as national spending and revenue pressures draw more corporate finance attention to Washington.
Harker previously served as the Navy’s CFO and a senior financial official at HUD and the VA. He said his new mandate includes pursuing the department’s first clean audit opinion, something the Pentagon has never achieved.
His arrival comes as federal outlays continue to rise across major categories, an unprecedented $1 trillion national defense budget has been proposed and as tariff collections remain a significant revenue source following years of expanded trade actions by President Donald Trump. Those duties are now part of an active legal fight that is presumably on the radar of all finance leaders working in government.
Many CFOs in the private sector are likely watching how the federal government leans on its balance sheet to manage risk, steady volatile markets and keep capital flowing, even when that contrasts with the message the private companies give internally and externally about disruption potential in their own products and making investment opportunities based on those presumptions alone. That tension has made Washington’s fiscal choices a more pressing factor in how finance teams at large, fast-growing companies approaching too-big-to-fail territory think about credit, liquidity and long-term planning.
For finance leaders across government, the moment underscores a widening challenge. They are expected to modernize financial systems and produce auditable statements while managing an environment where efforts to cut spending collide with rising costs, revenue tools are politically charged and oversight expectations continue to grow. Harker steps into that landscape with one of the most complex financial portfolios in the federal system.
Part 2 — This week
Here’s a list of important market events slated for the week ahead.
Monday, Nov. 17
Tuesday, Nov. 18
- Import price index, Oct.
- Export Prices, Oct.
- Industrial production, Oct.
- Home builder confidence index, Nov.
Wednesday, Nov. 19
- Housing starts, Oct.
- Building permits, Oct.
Thursday, Nov. 20
- Initial jobless claims
- Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey, Nov.
- U.S. leading economic indicators, Oct.
Friday, Nov. 21
- S&P flash U.S. services PMI, Nov.
- S&P flash U.S. manufacturing PMI, Nov.
- Consumer sentiment (final), Nov.
Part 3 — Weekly listen: Disney CFO Hugh Johnston on YouTube TV negotiations and streaming profitability
On Bloomberg Talks this week, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said the company closed its fiscal year with “a lot of momentum,” pointing to a 19% EPS gain and outperformance in parks, sports and streaming. “Overall, I thought the quarter was good,” he said. “We beat expectations by 6 cents.”
Johnston spent much of the interview underscoring confidence in streaming profitability through 2026. He also highlighted early bundling gains and investments in the unified app and recommendation engine. “Initially, when you do bundling, you’re making an investment,” he said. “But the paybacks on that are going to be tremendous.”
He also struck a firm tone on Disney’s dispute with YouTube TV, telling Bloomberg the talks were “an active negotiation” and that Disney had put forward “a very attractive deal.” But those negotiations are now over. Disney and YouTube TV reached a new agreement late last week, restoring ABC, ESPN, FX, NatGeo and other Disney networks after more than two weeks of blackout that blocked major news and sports programming from paying customers.
Both sides had publicly accused the other of pushing unreasonable terms during the standoff, which YouTube said would have forced higher prices and which Disney said undervalued its content.
Johnston said ESPN’s new streaming product is also showing early traction. “It’s off to a great start,” he noted, adding that about 80% of subscribers so far are choosing bundled packages that lift engagement across the broader Disney ecosystem.
On CEO succession, Johnston reiterated the board’s timeline. “What the board has indicated is that [it] will take place sometime during the first calendar quarter of ’26,” he said.
