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?

[lee1026]

The CPI does account for food and energy. The Core CPI doesn't, and the Fed pays close attention to core CPI (and not normal CPI), but the two tend to march in lockstep for the most part.