For corporations, patriotism a foreign concept

By Jay Bookman
Aug. 6, 2014

[I don't know if this graph allows for inflation. Even if it doesn't, corporate profits clearly aren't suffering. If I find out, I'll update this.]

You will have to click on the image to see the right-hand side.



Poor, poor corporate America. It just breaks your heart to see them struggle like that, doesn't it?

That enormous increase in corporate profitability has in part come at the expense of the American worker, who has seen his or her paycheck lose earning power throughout the period in question. Those record-high corporate profits also drive the record-high levels of the stock market, which in turn drives record-high CEO compensation packages. If you want to identify the causes of growing income inequality that has analysts like those at Standard & Poors worried, you're looking at one prime candidate.

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Jay Bookman

Posted: 11:43 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014

For corporations, patriotism a foreign concept

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By Jay Bookman

Money knows no country, and neither do those enlisted in the service of money.

Take a look at the chart above, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It displays the immense growth of corporate AFTER-TAX profits since 1970, and particularly since 2000. Let me stress it again: These are AFTER-TAX profits.

Poor, poor corporate America. It just breaks your heart to see them struggle like that, doesn't it?

That enormous increase in corporate profitability has in part come at the expense of the American worker, who has seen his or her paycheck lose earning power throughout the period in question. Those record-high corporate profits also drive the record-high levels of the stock market, which in turn drives record-high CEO compensation packages. If you want to identify the causes of growing income inequality that has analysts like those at Standard & Poors worried, you're looking at one prime candidate.

And then ponder this:

"Washington policymakers are bracing for a wave of corporations to renounce their U.S. citizenship over the next few months, depriving the federal government of billions of dollars in tax revenue and stoking public outrage ahead of the Nov. 4 congressional elections.

So far this year, about a dozen U.S. companies — including such well-known brands as Medtronic medical devices and Chiquita bananas — have merged with foreign firms and shifted their headquarters offshore to avoid U.S. taxes, analysts say.

Dozens of additional deals are in the works, according to administration and congressional officials, and other companies are quietly contemplating the move."
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