Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

What’s the best way to measure corporate performance?

Feb 18, 2022
“There isn’t one,” said Patrick Badolato, a professor of accounting. But investors and analysts use “net income” and “EBITDA” in their attempts.
Obscure financial metrics "seem to tell a nice and neat and tidy story, and the reality is messy and nuanced,” said Patrick Badolato, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Texas.
George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images

Pandemic-fueled demand for traveling nurses creates growing earnings disparity

Jan 10, 2022
Pay for travel nurses is skyrocketing, making some staff nurses question why they stay.
The pay for traveling nurses has spiked, creating a wider pay gap for staff nurses.
izzetugutmen via Getty Images

Women gamers finding it difficult to level up earnings in esports

Sep 13, 2021
Among the top 300 moneymakers in esports, none of them are women.
Getty Images

What this Dutch semiconductor company could tell you about the car market

Aug 2, 2021
NXP is one of the top suppliers of computer chips to automakers.
The Nijmegen, Netherlands headquarters of Dutch chip maker NXP in 2015.
Vincent Jannink/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

The chips (makers) are down: Semiconductors suffer on trade tensions

Jun 14, 2019
The industry hoped things would pick up this year. The industry was wrong.
Semiconductors are pictured on a circuit board used in a Samsung video camera in San Jose, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Can credit card companies sustain their rewards programs?

Apr 19, 2019
American Express recently reported quarterly earnings, showing that its single-biggest expense was credit card rewards.
magnez2/Getty Images
Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Coke earnings don't tell the whole tariff story for beverage suppliers

Oct 29, 2018
Coca-Cola is expected to report earnings Tuesday morning before the markets open, and the news could be good for investors. Strong demand for diet beverages in the U.S. continues. Never mind that the company raised prices during the summer, saying the cost of making the cans was going up due to aluminum tariffs. Earnings are […]
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Coke earnings don't tell the whole tariff story for beverage suppliers

Oct 29, 2018
Coca-Cola is expected to report earnings Tuesday morning before the markets open, and the news could be good for investors. Strong demand for diet beverages in the U.S. continues. Never mind that the company raised prices during the summer, saying the cost of making the cans was going up due to aluminum tariffs. Earnings are […]
Scott Olson/Getty Images

As corporate earnings season rolls on, winners and losers emerge

Tariffs are costing some companies plenty. Others are immune, at least for now, and benefiting from tax cuts.
“We have the highest prices in the world right now for aluminum and steel,” said Kristin Dziczek, a vice president at the Center for Automotive Research. Above, Ford Mustangs are assembled at a plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, in 2004.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images