Despite
high unemployment and a largely languishing real estate market, U.S. businesses
are more profitable than ever, according to federal figures released on
Friday.
U.S.
corporate profits hit an all-time high at the end of 2010, with financial firms
showing some of the biggest gains, data from the federal Bureau of Economic
Analysis show. Corporations reported an annualized $1.68 trillion in profit in
the fourth
quarter. The previous record, without being adjusted for inflation, was
$1.65 trillion in the third quarter of 2006.
Many
of the nation's preeminent companies have posted massive increases in profits
this year. General Electric posted worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, while
profits at JPMorgan Chase were up 47 percent to $4.8 billion. Huffington
Post
Corporate
profits steadily increased last year as companies continued holding onto record
amounts of cash and other liquid assets while cutting costs, laying off workers
and wringing more productivity -- defined as the amount of output that comes
from an hour of
work -- from remaining staff, even as the recession eased. Huffington Post To
put that in perspective, said Lynn Reaser, the chief economist at Point Loma
Nazarene University in San Diego, it's important to note that companies were
able to bring production back up to pre-recession levels without hiring any more
workers. Huffington Post "We
have now recovered all of the output lost in the recession, but we are still
down by 7.5 million workers," she said. Huffington Post In
addition to layoffs, some companies continued to cut wages and benefits last
year. Sub-Zero, the freezer and refrigerator manufacturer, told workers last
year that factories in Wisconsin would have to be shut down, with 500 employees
losing their jobs, unless staff took a 20 percent pay cut, The New York Times
reported. Workers
were expected to put in more hours without overtime pay, while staff facing
fewer hours of work due to furloughs were expected to do as much as they would
have in a full workday, according to NPR. Huffington Post
A
plutocracy is a system of rule by people of wealth, which describes our
situation far more accurately than the term democracy. commondreams.org The
U.S. current economy is accurately described by investment advisors and
marketing consultants as a "plutonomy", a combination of the terms "plutocracy"
and "economy." It refers to an economy of the very wealthy. This is the mirror
opposite of economic democracy, which is an essential foundation of political
democracy, both foundational to the Living Democracy of Earth Community.
livingeconomiesforum.org Hundreds
of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for and against
candidates -- without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They're
laundered through a handful of groups or individuals. politifi.com 130
foreign companies have donated more than $12.6 million (and still counting) to
political campaigns through various Political Action Committees.
opensecrets.org From
1989 to 2010, the top ten lists of the largest U.S. donors have donated nearly
260 million dollars for election campaigns. opensecrets.org Companies
and interest groups spent $3.42 billion lobbying Congress and the federal
government in 2008. That's a 14 percent jump from the previous year and roughly
twice the 2001 amount. This is despite the worst recession since the '30s.
slate.com
FM/SM/DB
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