Three times in history has corporate profit share gone above 9%, 1929, 2006..

[Fumesucker]

And this year..

http://blogs.hbr.org/fox/2010/11/the-real-story-behind-those-re.html

(snip)

You might not be able to tell this from the chart, but the third-quarter 2010 profit share, at 9.46%, is slightly below the peak of 9.58% in the third-quarter of 2006. But it's still quite high by historical standards. The chart above only goes back to 1947, because that's as far back as quarterly data goes. There is annual data to 1929, and the only time besides 2006 and (one can predict with some confidence) this year when the profit share topped 9% was 1929, when it hit 9.9%.

Approaching a record set in 1929 doesn't seem like an auspicious sign. But really, what exactly does such a high profit share mean? Economists have surprisingly few answers. There's been lots of work done on the meaning of cyclical shifts in corporate profits — basically, a profit upswing usually precedes a broader economic boom. But I've been looking since the late 1990s for good explanations of secular shifts in profits, and found very little — and I'm not the only one. If you know of any enlightening research, please steer me toward it. (And yeah, yeah, I know somebody's going to say Karl Marx. Is it finally time to read Das Kapital?)

(snip)

So the reason that corporate profits are near their all-time highs would appear to be that financial corporations (mainly big financial corporations) and multinationals are making lots of money and paying less of it out in taxes. Hmmmm.

The corporate profit picture would seem to mirror what's been going on in the income distribution for individuals for the past few decades. The money is increasingly going to a select group at the very top of the economic food chain, who are able to reap the rewards of global growth, play the financial system astutely, and avoid taxes. You can spin this in a moderately positive way: these are very dynamic economic times, and the rewards are going to those companies and individuals who position themselves to take advantage of this dynamism. But there are an awful lot of negative ways you can spin it, too.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr

[leftstreet]

2. K&R

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Frightening..REALLY frightening...

and as scary as the facts are, it is even scarier how many Americans have absolutely no awareness of this at all...

[Fumesucker]

4. Kick for the night crew..

:kick:

[bullwinkle428]

5. Scariest K&R ever.

[Greyhound]

6. K&R but damn.

Is it just that people are so bored/befuddled/uninterested in economics that this kind of news is ignored even here among those of us "paying attention"?

Any post on a teevee show gets more attention.
:grr::banghead:

[Poboy]

7. It is why we are doomed. Downward spiral to dissolution as a people.

[Fumesucker]

8. I think it scares the crap out of people..

Even here most people are more interested in being distracted with minutia than talking about really scary scenarios, the more likely they are the less people want to hear about it..

Of course, there are those few of us who enjoy dystopian fiction..

[Catshrink]

9. K&R