A 60 percent increase followed by a 40 percent decrease

This winds up being a 4% decrease.

Step-by-step explanation:

For an example, we will take an object that costs $100. If we mark it up by 60%, the new cost will be $160.

Now we want to take the cost of $160, and subtract 40%. First we need to find 40% of $160. We can do that by multiplying them together.

$160*40% = $64

Now we will subtract that from the cost of the item after the increase.

$160 - $64 = $96.

Even though the percent decrease was less, the order in which we do it causes this to be an overall decrease