Please explain all steps and show all calculations. Thank you.

The following is an excerpt from a quarterly earnings American Expre announcement by American Express: American Express Reports Record Quarterly Net Income of $648 Million Due to a change in accounting rules, the company is required to capitalize software costs rather than expense them as they occur. For the third quarter of 20X9, this amounted to a pre-tax benefit of $68 million (net of amortization). Also, the securitization of credit card receivables produced a gain of $55 million (\$36 million after tax) in the current quarter. Required: Evaluate and comment on both (a) the earnings quality and (b) the relative performance o American Express in the most recent quarter relative to the same quarter of the prior fisca year