Higher productivity enables companies to increase sales without adding workers. Even if job markets tighten and wages rise, corporate profits can continue to climb as long as worker productivity is growing faster than overall wages.

Trust-me companies are companies whose financial results gallop ahead of their businesses, companies with seemingly perfect control over their quarterly sales and profits. Companies whose financial statements are loaded with footnotes: companies that short-sellers often attack but rarely dent.

Most companies can survive even if their debt ratings are lowered below investment grade, although they will have higher borrowing costs.

Macroeconomics is the analysis of the economy as a whole, an examination of overall supply and demand. At the broadest level, macroeconomists want to understand why some countries grow faster than others and which government policies can help growth.

While prices of goods continue to rise, American worker's wages remain stagnant.

As they grow, companies saturate their markets, become more complex and difficult to manage, and face larger and more entrenched competitors.