Tom Petruno

Writer

About

Tom Petruno is a veteran financial writer. His work appears in the Los Angeles Times, Kiplinger’s magazine and elsewhere. He was the financial columnist for the Los Angeles Times from 1990 to 2011. Before that he was markets editor for USA TODAY. Petruno is based in Los Angeles.

Amazon reviews with high ratings Feature / Retail

Is Amazon’s Fake Review Response 94 Days Too Late?

Phony posts are largely very short-term campaigns

Uncle Oke's Pot shop store front with an open sign Research Brief / Retail

Small Enterprises Benefit from Economies of Scale in Marijuana Retailing

Washington state data: Profits higher, prices lower at multi-store firms

A man dressed in pink dress shirt and tie pointing at himself in the mirror Research Brief / Finance

“How’re Sales, Roger?” “Good Question, Roger!”

When CEO and analyst share a first name, earnings estimates are sharper

Jay Powell Research Brief / Markets

Corporate Bond Market Meltdown Averted after Fed Action

Decade-old bank-risk limits may have exacerbated liquidity problems

Tall buildings from the perspective of a person looking up Research Brief / Economics

A Broader Measure of Value Creation at Corporations

A tool in the debate over shareholder primacy and wealth disparities

Overview of a downtown city scape Research Brief / Unemployment

Consumer Spending and Jobless Data: a Peculiar Threshold

A 12-month high in local unemployment triggers savings behavior

Two doctors performing surgery Research Brief / Health Care

Kidney Transplant Outcomes Suffer at Clinics That Add Liver Transplants

Younger-patient mortality rate nearly triples, 20 years of data indicate

Illustration of dollar bills folded into a Staff of Hermes Research Brief / Health Care

Medicare Could Save by Subsidizing Providers’ Capital Spending

Projects that make health care delivery more efficient require upfront financial help

Closeup of microchips Research Brief / Pricing

Volume Discount? In the Chip Industry, Don’t Count on One

Semiconductor makers’ pricing is based not just on quantities ordered but also on “capacity rationing”

Hospital emergency room Research Brief / Health Care

Machine Learning Can Help Reduce Post-Surgical Hospital Readmissions

A model outperformed simpler statistical approaches in predicting which patients would encounter trouble

Blurry image of a document that has redaction Research Brief / Banking

When Lenders Put a Muzzle on Borrowers

Companies hide from shareholders information about loans — more than likely to appease banks

Digital map Research Brief / Markets

Does Better Corporate Disclosure Boost Markets?

Stronger financial reporting standards seem to mean more for growth of countries’ credit markets than their stock markets

Illustration of a man cooking books in a pot Research Brief / Corporate Finance

Upside Earnings Surprise Issued Late: Signal of Possible Manipulation

Companies that take longer than expected to announce results may be buying time for accounting tricks

High speed view in a tunnel Feature / Investing

At Last, the Momentum Investing Puzzle Solved?

The simplest explanation — “I can’t believe you know something I don’t” — may trump all the rest