How is WalMart/Ford/Morgan Stanley doing?

What does it mean when we read or hear that a firm is financially fit, growing, or flush with earnings? The terms on the surface look simple enough.

Take a look at the following link to an article in the November 2, 2009 Business Week.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_44/b4153000349169.htm

Goodwill, accounts payable and accounts receivable are terms of art. A stroke on a keyboard can change the public image of a firm’s performance and prospects.

Just one more good source to encourage skepticism and alertness to ambiguity.