I just saw this graph from a regular publication I receive and thought it was very interesting and might explain why so many people aren't as excited about the stock market and economy as the financial cable tv guys seem to be.
There is quite an impressive gap that continues to expand between corporate profits and labor share of the Gross Domestic Product of the USA post World War II. It is interesting too that in 2009, at the bottom of the stock market correction, the gap was narrowed for about 30 minutes before shooting right back up to record levels.
Even if you draw a line straight across from the 2009 low for corporate profits, they just got down to about the mid point--meaning not really historically low. Labor, on the other hand, simply renewed its previous descent.
Somebody, can't remember who, said it this way--"Corporate profits aren't the same as jobs." At this particular time it seems corporations are more interested in technology to replace jobs and keep the profits. This is a wild looking chart though and I wonder what it might take to normalize. The last 10 years or so is what it took to get us here. Do you suppose this started about the time the worldwide web and broadband really started having an impact?
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