Incognito thanks for some contrary views. Let me counter them. ;-)
I mean the new Bible must be a large expense because they are good quality Bibles and the material to produce them must be relatively expensive. At a time when they've stopped publishing most if not all hardbacks due to cost, it really stands out as a quality publication. (They even experimented with cheap paperback Bibles for a short period) Plus simply the fact that it's a new edition means that every JW needs one or two new copies, plus inactive ones, plus anyone else who wants a new one. I think it must have been pretty expensive. And now rolling it out to other languages is another huge expense it seems difficult to avoid.
You say they made one or two billion dollars from Brooklyn property, but that's not an inexhaustible sum. Especially when you consider they've spend just under quarter of a billion dollars on missionaries, travelling overseers and special pioneers a year. On top of that you've got printing, bethel staff, property maintenance, legal fees, web technology and whatever. Their overall running expenses could easily be more than a billion dollars a year. So if they made one or two billion from property, after you subtract the cost of the new HQ, it doesn't stretch that far if there's a major deficit.
Stephen Lett said there is an ongoing deficit. He also let slip that income from sale of property was being used to meet running costs. They can only do that for so long before they run out. I don't think they're in the luxurious position of being able to put money aside to live from the investment. The scale and rapidity of cuts in the last two years indicate an organisation that is fighting for survival.
You didn't mention the cost of looking after retired COs, subsidising poor countries on the basis of declining membership in rich countries, abuse claim payouts, declining donations from disaffected membership.
