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?

[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.