As companies seek to close growing gaps in skills and talent,

Deloitte US CEO Jason Garzatus believes it's important for organizations to understand their baseline of skills.

There's so many organizations that can't ask and answer the fundamental questions about how much computer science or data management skills do I have or AI development skills in a given domain?

By performing a skills inventory, leaders can truly understand where their efforts should be focused.

Being blind to those gaps is the real miss.

Visit Deloitte.com to learn how your enterprise can help successfully cultivate talent.

Here is your morning brief for Thursday, December 18th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal.

President Trump defended his handling of the economy in a primetime address, touting lower prices for goods, predicting a drop in housing costs, and announcing a warrior dividend of $776 for active-duty service members.

The president has also teased the prospect of sending $2,000 checks funded in part by tariffs

to low- and middle-income Americans, though congressional Republicans have expressed concern,

given the size of the budget deficit and inflation running almost a full percentage point above

the Fed's target. We are set to get a fresh look at U.S. inflation data for November at 8.30 a.m.

Eastern. The U.S. has approved more than $11 billion in armed sales to Taiwan. The sales include

howitzers, missiles, and anti-tank drones, along with truck-based

Haimars missile launchers that would help Taiwan to inflict pain on invading forces, part of the

island's goal of making China think twice before attacking. The sales come at a delicate time,

as President Trump tries to demonstrate support for Taiwan while pursuing trade deals

with China and taking a softer stance toward the country. And we're learning more about Warner Brothers

discoveries move to urge shareholders to reject Paramount Skydance's hostile takeover bid. The company

says it had concerns about the use of an Ellison family trust to backstop the equity

commitments within the deal and wants Oracle founder Larry Ellison to give a personal guarantee

that he is committed to the almost $78 billion bid. Paramount said Warner was misleading its

...