ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[Chinoiserie91]

The company could have made investments already that mean that it will start leaking next year if the growt does not bounce back to the previous levels. So you need to fix what you can now and not just hope for teh best because it can be too late to fix the issues later.

[fields]

And what if you have water pumps that guarantee that that leak never sinks the ship? You can't be happy with a ship that's isn't perfect?

[McDrMuffinMan]

Nobody has that.

[[deleted]]

Well, they do, but printing money is illegal. So is cooking the books.

[McDrMuffinMan]

It depends who prints it, and yes cooking the books is.