(Corporate) Profits surge to 40-year high

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BC4257910%2D8351%2D437A%2D8C00%2DE4CF3B782091%7D&dist=newsfinder&symbol=&siteid=mktw

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. corporate profits have increased 21.3% in the past year and now account for the largest share of national income in 40 years, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Strong productivity gains and subdued wage growth boosted before-tax profits to 11.6% of national income in the fourth quarter of 2005, the biggest share since the summer of 1966. See full story.

For all of 2005, before-tax profits totaled $1.35 trillion, up from $1.16 trillion in 2004 and just $767 billion in 2001.

Meanwhile, the share of national income going to wage and salary workers has fallen to 56.9%. Except for a brief period in 1997, that's the lowest share for labor income since 1966.

<snip>

Profits have been so high because almost all of the benefits from productivity improvements are flowing to the owners of capital rather than to the workers.

...more...

Welcome to Bush Amerika!

Right?

Bush said so.

So did his Daddy.

They wouldn't lie to the American people to stuff more money in their rich friends bank accounts, would they?

Because if that's the case, the President isn't representing all Americans, he's discriminating and just representing some of them...

That would be impeachable, would it not?

i wish they had a ''piss on you'' smilie.

i'm not being smarmy to you -- just the whole corporate thingy has me so annoyed.

Just right click, save to your HD, then upload to your server.

Until he bacame the lap dog of Reagan.

More like Trickle up effect. The rich "Have more's" taking from the poor "Have nothing".

age as well?

:sarcasm:

The 1960s economy was pretty fantastic (esp compared to today) and the tax rates were much, much higher than those of today. Even corporations paid a great deal in taxes back then, believe it or not. Corporate profits from forty years ago resulted from a company producing higher quality, better goods and services than competitors- not from racing to the bottom in labor costs, service, quality, workmanship, etc.

Of course there was some profiteering from the public treasury in 1966, and there always is. But there is very little comparison between the 1966 economy and that of today.

studied the war much. But I think the key point is wars effect on the economy. WW2, Vietnam, and OIF all had massive effects on the economy. Iraq has probably kept the economy from collapsing completely today. There were several huge companies (GE, Brown and Root) making massive profits off the war. Just a thought....

I'd appreciate hearing more from you...

Thanks...

Companies have the parts made in sweat shops in China and then assemble them here in the US. The cost per production goes down so it looks like productivity has gone up. That is also why median houshold incomes have stagnated. I may be wrong on this but I never could find any information that would contradict it in how they calculate productivity.

Good point. With a bad economy, accelerating offshoring/inshoring, no wonder workers are doing so poorly & corps. so fat-cat wealthy.

that's been really putting the screws to anyone who still does work in the US.
more work for the same money.

You just can't see it from down here.

the American workers.

increase 20-50% per year.

isn't working. The repukes say give to the wealthy and they will share with the working class. As we see corporate wealth increases and workers salary decreases.

Hey freeps are you paying attention??????????????????????????????????????

:eyes:

I can tell you that in my experience cost of living is increasing at a far faster clip than my salary. And I am one of the lucky ones employed full time with benefits....

I haven't seen a 21% increase even if you combine my raises for the past 5 YEARS...

Everyone I know says the same exact thing, and many have reportedly good jobs at huge institutions. Now they're in fear of loosing long-term health care benefits they pay for out of their paychecks, and their pensions.

Welcome to whomever it is running corporate America. I read at several creditable places their now called multi-national Americans, whatever that means.

Please explain to me how sending the well paying jobs to slave labor in China's prisons or Bhopal is good for Amerika?

the products when all the halfway decent jobs are gone.

People are mistaken if they think that corporations have to worry about the shrinking American middle class. As they say, the next 100 years will likely be known as The Asian Century.

My mind is greatly relieved! :sarcasm:

the brainwashed dittoheads to figure out. Guess what happens when multinational corporations don't need the American consumer anymore. Wonder if they'll care about whether gays can get married then.

Haven't had benefits since the early 90's.

shove it! I'm tired of getting tiny increases when gas, heat, insurance, health care rise 20-50% per year and the boss is living high on the hog while doing very little work.

I have to admit, I'm a little scared but I'm resourceful, have good skills, and get paid through end of Aug.

I also feel very free, like I did the right thing. There's got to be something better out there than SLAVERY.

After putting in heroic effort and hours to save several failing projects for our company, I was rewarded with...a 5% raise and no bonus this year.

It'll trickle down any second now, I'm sure...any second now....

I've gotten a total amount of $.40 (yes, that's forty cents) in raises over the past 5 years. That still doesn't put me over $8.00 per hour, and my job doesn't provide benefits.

And yet, the company wants me to work harder than ever to make the owners even more wealthy.

means: you can be a reporter or teach English on some level. Even $30K with benefits is better than what you've got now.

Workers, UNITE!

just wishful thinking.

through the financial sector.

No big puzzle at all- except the one the whores at "marketwatch" want you to believe.

:mad:

Down economics. Lear Corp is also posting profits again. Must be good to be a Republican.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

get richer and the poor to get poorer...

American CEO profits = Made In China.

own interests, its going to continue. While the labor class of workers is struggling, white collar is thriving. A fundamental shift in the workforce is taking place (to white-collar service type jobs) and its probably for the better.


taught.

Most of them are since bush took office. There's finally a few more jobs open now, but they're still white collar sweatshops.

My personal experience, Microsoft, USPS, IBM, Washington Mutual, and a whole lot more, are all sweatshop employers. Thats for the people that work in their offices. I've never been in their factories. They weren't before Bush took office. They are now.

Low pay, over worked, doing the job of at least 2 people if not 4, very long hours, the company picks up the cost of little to no benefits. Typical now a days. I call it the Walmart legacy. It's going through all corporations.

but those white collar jobs pay MUCH more than labor jobs.

coming from a former white collar temp who made $8/hr with a fucking Master's degree...that's another way megacorps bypass paying decent white collar wages...teh blood sweat and tears of temps...

white collar jobs are going away too.

And any kind of collar jobs, wages are stagnating and benefits are going the way of the eight-track.

Making rich people richer. Their campaign contributions seem to have been a wonderful investment.

of certain corporations, namely, EXXON, BP and the rest of the Oil conglomerates, and by Haliburton and the rest of the war-profiteers. I sincerely doubt the average corporation is at an all time high. At least they are not judging by their 2nd quarter profits.

peace and low energy prices would be a disaster for the shrub economy.

If anyone knows anything about history, its repeating itself here. Think of the French Revolution, to name but one of many in the past.

This is not good. When will the rest of us awaken?

This isn't wealth being created here, just wealth exchanged among equals.

The "subdued wage growth" tells the whole story here.

Some links I've gathered over the last month or so:


Danger time for America
http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5381959

Alan Greenspan
Monetary myopia
http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5381959


Borrowing from the future (chart)


America's new inflation


Home prices get even more overvalued
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/23/real_estate/most_markets_more_overpriced/index.htm?cnn=yes


General Information on the Minimum Wage
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/issueguides_minwage_minwage

Oregon restaurants fare better after minimum wage increase
http://www.ocpp.org/1999/es032399.htm



Debt is financing the GDP


Almost Unnoticed, Bi-Partisan Budget Anxiety
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/17/AR2005051701238.html


Mind the gap: Income inequality, state by state
New report looks at where the growth in incomes of high-income families has outpaced that of middle- and low-income households.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/25/news/economy/income_gap/index.htm?cnn=yes



Ominous Warnings and Dire Predictions of World's Financial Experts, Part 1
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/pebble.asp?relid=17570



The economy is very top-heavy and is about to fall over.

Thanks for posting them here :hi:

Something to work on this weekend!


:D

http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20060330








Well...maybe more ugly than pretty.

hello corporatism! Ya work 16 hours and what do ya get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

it is however close to being a class slaughter

Words and music by geddy lee, alex lifeson, and neil peart

There’s no bread, let them eat cake
There’s no end to what they’ll take
Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
Wash the salt into the earth

But they’re marching to bastille day la guillotine will claim
Her bloody prize free the dungeons of the innocent the king
Will kneel, and let his kingdom rise

Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace
Naked fear on every face
See them bow their heads to die
As we would bow as they rode by

And we’re marching to bastille day la guillotine will claim
Her bloody prize sing, o choirs of cacophony the king has
Kneeled, to let his kingdom rise

Lessons taught but never learned
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago the mould was cast

For they marched up to bastille day la guillotine -- claimed
Her bloody prize hear the echoes of the centuries power isn’t
All that money buys

it's a winner-takes-all system.
Meaning there will be nothing left for the rest of us.

something that my anthropology professor said in class. He said that there never has been pure Communism, but US would be the first. I don't think he got it quite right, but if these huge corporations merge to the point where there only a few with less or no competition---think about pepsi-co merging with Coca Cola and Beatrice has taken over food companies like Rosarita and sells everything from lamps to food. Huge corporations cornering the food market, the oil industry, utilities. We will be captive consumers, with less and less choice. Less choice in goods, self-service instead of customer service as more and more "service" industry jobs are lost. And the few behemoth corps. will just get bigger and bigger and have more power over us. This is a main concern for me. We talk about corporations working with the government against the people is fascism, but what happens when the corporations become the government against the will of the people? When there is not even an illusion of democracy--a corporate entity that merges as one huge behemoth monster controlling the resources of not only the US, but the world. the corporation becomes the state. Sounds a little sci-fi, huh? Kind of reminds of the movie, Brazil.

Funny how no one talks about how compatible corporatism or radical capitalism has been with communism in China. Read recently that most Mercans didn't even know China was still communist. My theory is that our doing business over there has made us more like them than has reformed them to our (alleged) ideals.

the vast majority of Chinese workers have NOT been ideologically swayed by the rampant capitalism...perhaps because they don't see any profit and the betterment of China for China's sake as well as the Confucian ethic still downplays the role of individualism and consumer choice...the latter IS changing a bit but nowhere near US levels...point it you are absolutely correct there has been scarcely any head-scratching from the Chinese about the supposed hypocrisy of unchekced capitalist expansion along with Communist social policies.....

economy - our's as in the average citizens'. Then the Fed puts money back in by creating credit, and the corporations practically manufacture their own currency by printing stocks and bonds... money. Lots of it. Sloshing around the board room. But it CAN'T trickle down to the everyday economy of workers. If by some quirk any should trickle back down to wage earners, then that is inflation and must be squeezed out of the economy. So the trade deficit takes money out of the worker's economy and puts it in the hands of people who then wage class war against us.

The American isn't one economy. It's one for the workers and a separate, much more generous one, for the ruling class.

Where artificial persons are favored over real people.

Or if you happen to be filthy stinking rich, the apex. But this is really much bigger than Bush.

Rubinomics under Clinton was a somewhat softer permutation of the same goddamn thing. A stock market bubble helped workers for awhile, but this is a long term trend that has been occurring for the past 30 years, briefly lessened by the stock market bubble. A grossly disproportionate amount of the gains from increased productivity have been going to the tip top of the economic pyramid for way, way too long in this country while the rest of us tread water.

This country needs a substantial economic alternative out of the Democratic party, not just some relatavely more benevolent corporate brain trust that chuckles at the notion of being like http://www.counterpunch.org/pollin10182003.html">Eisenhower Republicans while this shit goes on, satisfied at merely preempting the very worst demands of America's corporate owners.

It's time to dismantle Reaganomics. "Putting people first" has to be more than a poll tested slogan next time around that's quickly jettisoned in favor of business as usual. More sound fiscal policy isn't an end in and of itself. It's just a way for corporate owned Democrats to frame a hollow economic victory. Economic security for working people is a victory. A better standard of living is a victory. Did the economic benefits that the New Deal delivered to the working class and the middle class evaporate almost immediately after FDR died or after Truman left office? That's the kind of Democratic economic restructuring we need next time.

Well, OF COURSE profits are at a 40-year high! Labor costs are down via outsourcing, subcontracting, union undermining, and illegal immigration; tax cuts are permanent; bankruptcy and lawsuits are practically obsolete, safety and environmental regulations have been relaxed, and the war profiteering machine is going at full blast. Maybe THAT'S what Georgie's "Mission Accomplished" banner really meant!

:eyes:
rocknation

All Bush looks at are corporate profits. x(

GREED!!! its like reliving the coolidge times!!! but with HUGE deficits!!!

or something like that? Nothing to see here, move right a long.