The key to good business writing is the frame. In other words, how do you take arcane figures and put them into an easy-to-understand context that's smart, useful and memorable?
Our friends at Quartz nailed that task today, with a post titled "The US Fed had a greater profit than Apple and Exxon combined last year."
Catchy headline: check. Interesting topic: check.
The skinny?
The Federal Reserve turned a profit last year of $89 billion dollars, its best year in history.
As Quartz points out, the combined profits of Apple and Exxon — America's two most profitable companies — top a little more than $82 billion.
So how did the Fed do it?
Economic crisis, of course.
Here's how Quartz explained it:
By law, the Fed must turn that money over to the US Treasury Department, so don't expect any iPads or oil wells to gush forth any time soon.