Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter

[sharingwisdom]

November 24, 2010, The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/business/economy/24econ.html

The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever. American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago. The next-highest annual corporate profits level on record was in the third quarter of 2006, when they were $1.655 trillion.

Corporate profits have been doing extremely well for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history. As a share of gross domestic product, corporate profits also have been increasing, and they now represent 11.2 percent of total output. That is the highest share since the fourth quarter of 2006, when they accounted for 11.7 percent of output.

Note: Long-term unemployment is at a record high, yet corporations are raking in record profits. With record profits, why aren't corporations hiring more new employees? For many reports from reliable souces on corporate profiteering, click here.

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[podfish]

...The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever. ... Note: Long-term unemployment is at a record high, yet corporations are raking in record profits. With record profits, why aren't corporations hiring more new employees?

what makes you think those are incompatible? They make money by dealing with those who already have money; increases in productivity (much as I appreciate them in the abstract) make it possible to reduce labor costs - hire fewer, maybe slightly more expensive, people. And though many of the unemployed really aren't a competitive threat to the employed (since they lack some of the skills) as their number increases the implied threat to the employed keeps their demands for fair compensation down. And advances in technology (which I also appreciate in the abstract) make it less necessary to pay for skills in most employees anyway.
Like so many forces in the world today, people have worried about this for almost a couple of hundred years. I just don't understand why now, more than any historical time I know of, there seems to be so little sense that one of the goals of society is to improve the lot of all who live in it. Now it seems to be more of a mean-spirited sense that the unfortunate are suffering from their own weaknesses.

[someguy]

Now it seems to be more of a mean-spirited sense that the unfortunate are suffering from their own weaknesses.

I'm not sure where you are getting this idea from... I think people across all political spectrum's realize that the one's who are suffering from this economic downfall are suffering because of the massive transfer of wealth via the bailouts. Not even many republicans are blaming the poor anymore, at least not at the grassroots. This is where the tea party comes into play. I think that in large, the tea party realizes this concept more than the average republican. The tea party is trying to reform the republican party to have more compassion for the poor because they know the problem with unemployment and debt lies in the hands of our government who gave away the average Joe's money. Unfortunately the money is gone, given to the big bankers and big corporations who in reality should be one's living in cardboard boxes. I think more people now than ever realize this fact as it is hitting home for nearly everyone, no matter what political party they belong to. And it's only going to get worse my man. Were going to see inflation go through the roof pretty soon, and tons of new homeless folk because the unemployment benefits haven't been extended. And as it gets worse, more and more people will point the finger at the real culprits, not their brothers and sisters living in tent cities.

[podfish]

I'm not sure where you are getting this idea from...

yeah, maybe I chose the wrong rant. The drawer I should have opened is the one with the rant about people blaming each other, like attacking public sector employee pensions and illegal immigrants, and government programs that build infrastructure and create employment; rather than supporting efforts to control the aggregation of economic power.