Red Ink

Losses. It's a relic-ish term from the '50s when people said a lot of, "See here now"s and "youze guys"es. But the red allusion there is blood, and it came from gangster movies where companies were humanized, and they bled red ink when they had big losses.

So a company with $75 million in revenues and $125 million in expenses is bleeding red ink to the tune of $50 million. If it's a black-and-white-era film like Citizen Kane, then the noir-ish main character accountant nervously asks The Big Boss, "But boss, how much longer can we keep going like this, losing money creating electric cars?" And the boss chuckles after a puff and says, "We have $5 billion of cash on our balance sheet and no debt. So the answer? Eh, about 100 years." And then we cut to a new scene. Classic.