4 ms·
Strangely the author complains about bad comparisons but spends little time on how to make a good comparison. Here's a take on how to properly compare a company
by cjlars 8y ago
Strangely the author complains about bad comparisons but spends little time on how to make a good comparison. Here's a take on how to properly compare a company's financial flows to a country's (GDP):
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/06/28/gdp-for-a-country-is-not-the-same-thing-as-turnover-for-a-business/#5fa621c61206 https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/06/28/gdp-for-...
tl;dl - the closest approximation to GDP that you can pull from a public company's financial statements is gdp = profit + wages paid.
- tanderson92 8y agoThe author discusses the use of revenue as a proper company financial flow to use for comparison, provides an example of an article getting it right, and spends a significant amount of the article explaining the difference.
- cjlars 8y agoYa revenue's the wrong measure though. GDP is a measure of value added, but revenue includes all sorts of passthroughs including, for example, components imported from overseas (which are part of the GDP of their origin country and origin companies) . He goes out of his way to correct other journalists without himself offering the right answer.
- tanderson92 8y agoYou mean an answer you agree with. He did try to provide a correct comparison of the flows, contra to your initial post.