Numbers dressed up in fancy suits pretending to be words.
The direct costs of producing your products—basically the stuff that physically goes into making what you sell.
Profit divided by investment—showing how much money you made relative to what you put in, assuming you're measuring profit honestly.
Combining financial results from a parent company and all its subsidiaries into one statement—to hide where the actual problems are located.
Structuring transactions so debt or liabilities don't appear on your balance sheet—the accounting equivalent of hiding stuff in a closet.
An actual paper dollar bill as opposed to its coin-form equivalent (quarters, dimes, etc.)—useful when someone specifically needs the whole unit and not loose change.
Money you paid in advance for something you haven't used yet—like paying for next year's insurance today.
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles—the rulebook for how to count money in the United States, though it somehow still permits creative interpretation.
The risk-absorbing professional who evaluates insurance policies and securities offerings, essentially betting the company's capital that catastrophe won't strike their clients anytime soon.
The brave (or foolhardy) organization that creates and releases securities into the market, essentially asking strangers to trust their financial management for potential profits.
The bookkeeper's favorite white lie—spreading a gigantic debt or capital expense across multiple years so nobody has to stare directly at the fiscal crater you just created. Whether you're slowly drowning in a mortgage or pretending that expensive software will somehow stay useful until you've paid it off, amortisation is the art of making financial pain installment-friendly.