Gordomac
"Profit" is just an opinion. Cash is a matter of fact. You go out of business when you don't have the cash to pay anyone any more.
The accounting profession has progressively over time twisted and distorted the traditional metrics (balance sheet; income statement; profit & loss reporting, etc) to some short term advantage, but where they end up useless. They can say "that thing is worth a billion dollars", and gain a billion dollar profit in their accounts. Next year they say "that's not worth anything", and now you have a billion dollar loss. Nothing has changed. Quite a lot has to do with the equally convoluted way tax is assessed on businesses, and twisting figures to avoid paying tax over.