As Europe gradually switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, days and sometimes entire weeks would suddenly get passed by. One day it would be Oct. 4. The next day it was Oct. 15.

Goldman Sachs has pulled a similar stunt, switching the end of its fiscal year from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31. U.S. corporations report profits (or the lack) in quarterly chunks. So Goldman's fourth quarter was August through November. The first quarter, under the new calendar, was January through March, for which the firm reported a very nice profit of $1.8 billion. But what about December? Lacking a quarter to call home, December "will largely be ignored," reports the NYT's Floyd Norris. But it shouldn't be: Goldman stashed $1.3 billion of pretax losses in December.

Sez Floyd:

Where’s December?: Goldman Sachs reported a profit of $1.8 billion in the first quarter, and plans to sell $5 billion in stock and get out of the government’s clutches, if it can.

How did it do that? One way was to hide a lot of losses in not-so-plain sight.

Goldman’s 2008 fiscal year ended Nov. 30. This year the company is switching to a calendar year. The leaves December as an orphan month, one that will be largely ignored. In Goldman’s earnings statement, and in most of the news reports, the quarter ended March 31 is compared to the quarter last year that ended in February.

The orphan month featured — surprise — lots of write-offs. The pretax loss was $1.3 billion, and the after-tax loss was $780 million.