Corporate profits hit record high; still no hiring
“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 $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms.
Corporate profits have been going gangbusters 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.”
I know what you’re thinking: You want to see a chart.
OK, here.
I still know what you’re thinking: If only President Obama and the Democrats weren’t so darned anti-business. If only corporate America was making enough money to pump back into the economy. If only we could free up business and make it possible to earn a profit again.
If only ….
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526 comments Add your comment
Southern Comfort
November 23rd, 2010
1:17 pm
Whoooo hoooo!!!! Charts!!!!
Normal
November 23rd, 2010
1:20 pm
This is why tax cuts for the rich will work…WAIT! DID YOU SAY NO HIRING??!!
did you think they would hire?
November 23rd, 2010
1:25 pm
JB – Didn’t you know that jobs are being created, just not in the USA.
Let’s see how much of this gets invested in China and India.
And what happens when the great god offshorer who sucks up ALL the US jobs gets mad.
larry
November 23rd, 2010
1:26 pm
I thought tax cuts created jobs.
Shawny
November 23rd, 2010
1:28 pm
Is that adjusted for inflation?
Large corporations are not hiring because they are unsure of how this adminstration and congress will tax them, regulate them, and change business rules in general, such as healthcare coverage. Uncertainty means stay pat and sit on cash.
Southern Comfort
November 23rd, 2010
1:29 pm
If only ….
If frogs had wings, they wouldn’t bump their ass every time they hopped.
jewcowboy
November 23rd, 2010
1:30 pm
Get out of my mind! How did you know I wanted a chart? Actually, I was thinking about pie…but a chart is kinda close.
jewcowboy
November 23rd, 2010
1:30 pm
We just have to wait for the trickle.
AmVet
November 23rd, 2010
1:30 pm
Welcome to the American plutocracy!
Not to worry, all those trillions of dollars will soon trickle down to the rest of us!
Speaking of which, there is a great article in today’s AJC titled “Trickle-down bankruptcy.”
And take a wild guess who loses in that equation? (Same as it ever was.)
In a related item, the FBI raided three hedge funds in a wide-ranging probe of insider trading by hedge funds, mutual funds and investment bankers.
(This Obama socialism and anti-business attitude simply must stop!)
Also, yet more good news for the scandal ridden GOP: A former staffer for Alaska Republican Don Young gets jail time.
You’re doing a heckuva job, connies…
md
November 23rd, 2010
1:31 pm
Large corporations don’t provide the bulk of jobs……..small businesses do, and they aren’t sitting on tons of cash……..can’t even get a loan……….and still don’t have an abundance of customers.
Southern Comfort
November 23rd, 2010
1:33 pm
We just have to wait for the trickle.
The trickle has already happened. Remember the 45k jobs one month and 75k the next. We’re riding the trickle, baby!!!
md
November 23rd, 2010
1:34 pm
“We just have to wait for the trickle.”
One is more than welcome to get out and start their own business any time they want……..but most would prefer to complain about others not doing it.
Normal
November 23rd, 2010
1:35 pm
This is better for downstairs, but read it….
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/11/defense-korea-may-redeploy-nuclear-weapons-112210/
jewcowboy
November 23rd, 2010
1:35 pm
Seems as if there might be a little conflict with CEO’s pay and actual hiring…guess who’s gonna lose on this one…
http://247wallst.com/2010/09/01/ceo-conflict-layoffs-boost-ceo-pay-c-bac-cat-vz-pfe-emr-jpm-aa-wmt-mrk-jnj-hpq-dis-ibm-t-f-utx/
PeaDawg
November 23rd, 2010
1:37 pm
“This is why tax cuts for the rich will work…WAIT! DID YOU SAY NO HIRING??!!”
Point taken. But what are taxes increasing going to do?
Finn McCool
November 23rd, 2010
1:37 pm
They’re hiring, just not many people. They can afford to be very very very picky right now and probably for the next several years.
Time to add to the resume if you are unemployed.
Lil' Barry Bailout
November 23rd, 2010
1:40 pm
It really isn’t any of your business whether companies are hiring or not. Why don’t you start your own company and hire unnecessary workers if you think that’s such a fine idea?
John Birch
November 23rd, 2010
1:41 pm
Start up companies in their first five years of existence create jobs. Large corporations have very small net changes, some hire while others lay off, regardless of profits. Tight credit markets, economic uncertainty, and Obamacare are stiffling the start ups.
Lil' Barry Bailout
November 23rd, 2010
1:42 pm
Why are many Democrats in agreement with Republicans that raising taxes on the “rich” is a bad idea?
Normal
November 23rd, 2010
1:43 pm
But what are taxes increasing going to do?
Help lower the deficit
Finn McCool
November 23rd, 2010
1:43 pm
Companies realized efficiencies through computers and then through re-engineering. Why hire someone when you can get one person to do the job of 2 to 3 people. What’s the next thing they will squeeze?
Normal
November 23rd, 2010
1:44 pm
Why are many Democrats in agreement with Republicans that raising taxes on the “rich” is a bad idea?
Because they are in the same pocket…
Lil' Barry Bailout
November 23rd, 2010
1:45 pm
The fact is, according to the BLS, the Iddiot Messiah is destroying more jobs than he’s creating.
jewcowboy
November 23rd, 2010
1:45 pm
John Birch,
“Large corporations have very small net changes,”
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), 52,125 layoffs
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), 35,000 layoffs
Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), 27,499 layoffs
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), 21,308 layoffs
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), 19,872 layoffs
Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR), 14,200 layoffs
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), 14,000 layoffs
Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE:AA), 13,985 layoffs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT),13,350 layoffs
Which large corporations are making up for those 160+ layoffs?
jewcowboy
November 23rd, 2010
1:46 pm
“160+ layoffs?”
Apologies…160K+ layoffs.
Fred
November 23rd, 2010
1:46 pm
I really hate to say this but………..
It’s not unexpected. Companies laid off workers and then found that they were getting more production with fewer people. The ones left had to pick up the slack and actually WORK while they were at work. I read an article on this just the other day.
How many folks that spend time on these blogs are at work actually SUPPOSED to be um………. working? I’ve been a part of message board communities where some of the heaviest posters posted from 9-5 but not at home. I’m self employed (when I actually choose to work lol), so if I spend time blogging, the only one I’m screwing is me. But if I had an employee that had time to blog at work, I would consider that as one employee too many.
As far as that “sitting on their cash to see what happens” bull crap, it’s just that, bull squeeze. When I have more work than I can do I hire someone else. Plain and simple. All that boortz junk is just that, junk. I don’t know a single self employed person who would EVER turn away business because they didn’t have the man power and were afraid to hire someone, the entire notion is just ludicrous.
did you think they would hire?
November 23rd, 2010
1:48 pm
I have never been against tax cuts for small businesses or corporations that DO create jobs in the USA with the tax cuts.
But giving a tax cut to a company or corporation that ships jobs offshore makes me furious.
Seeing tax cuts for the extremely wealthy (with no reinvestment on their part) leaves me cold. CEO’S that make their bonus goals (profitability) by laying off workers should be held accountable.
These things will not come to pass because REMEMBER corporations are people (just greedy ones).
stands for decibels
November 23rd, 2010
1:48 pm
Why are many Democrats in agreement with Republicans that raising taxes on the “rich” is a bad idea?
because many Democrats are corporatist skank-ho’s. didn’t anyone ever teach you the facts of life, boy?
Some People are stupid
November 23rd, 2010
1:50 pm
Enter your comments here
AmVet
November 23rd, 2010
1:51 pm
The cons remind me of a sort of completely comedic and clueless Sherlock Holmes.
In spite of the mountains of evidence over thirty years of American corporate malfeasance and massive criminality, that demonstrates unequivocally why we are where we are, they concoct these dufus “explanations” that are based on……………………….well, I don’t think even they have an answer.
Well, I take that back. The esteemed and valorous Mr. Cheney did: “Nobody saw this coming”.
Utterly gutless and willfully myopic is NOT a winning combination, cons…
You see Mr. Watson, that House of cards is
Lord Help Us
November 23rd, 2010
1:51 pm
Let’s see…in 2001 the argument amounted to , ‘we have trillions is surplus…if we can’t have a tax cut now, when can we?’ And, a GWB special…’we can have these taxcuts and still have trillions in surplus.’
Now, 10 years later and roughly 10 trillion added to the debt…the argument is, ‘ we can’t raise taxes now, cause companies won’t hire and the economy will not recover.’
Folks, these were the SAME people…WHY should they be believed?
did you think they would hire?
November 23rd, 2010
1:52 pm
Finn McCool@1:43 pm
Companies realized efficiencies through computers and then through re-engineering. Why hire someone when you can get one person to do the job of 2 to 3 people. What’s the next thing they will squeeze?
————————–
Yes they did and then sent the computer jobs to India and China.
who’s next? more middleclass workers you can bank on it. Until no one but the CEO is left with all the profit.
Soothsayer
November 23rd, 2010
1:53 pm
Capitalism, a system of credit and debt that produced 300 years of growth is now dying. The bankers’ debt-based money has created such levels of debt that even 0 % credit can no longer induce growth. In the endgame, the problem is not the lack of credit—it’s the excessive amount of debt.
“. . .sooner or later, too much credit always turns into a giant debit as borrowers crumple under the burden of escalating interest payment . . .
—Melchior Palyi, economist, 1892-1970
Capitalism’s problem has always been debt, the inevitable byproduct of credit-driven expansion. In times of economic growth, merchants of debt, i.e. bankers, sell debt to those seeking returns; but, in the endgame when economies contract, IOUs cannot be repaid as defaulting debt overwhelms the ability to pay what is owed.
Today, central bankers are caught in a trap of their own making. Removing gold from the international monetary system in 1971 allowed governments and bankers to expand their balance sheets to historic heights. The price, however, was the debasement of their currencies, a price which is now being exacted.
For those with an attention span that exceeds 30 seconds, this is about as good an article as I have ever read about what we can expect in the near future.
Del
November 23rd, 2010
1:53 pm
The problem is that profits are being realized through cost cutting and increasing worker productivity, so they’re doing more with less. The federal government needs to pay close attention to this because that’s exactly what it will have to do. Small.business start ups or lack there of is a big problem and until such time as uncertainty is removed regarding taxes, the impact of health care legislation and government over reach we’ll continue to be in a high unemployment condition.
stands for decibels
November 23rd, 2010
1:53 pm
somewhat on-topic: “Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless”.
AmVet
November 23rd, 2010
1:53 pm
Because they are in the same pocket…
True dat, Normal!
The only difference between the Republican and Democratic Parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference. ~Ralph Nader
md
November 23rd, 2010
1:54 pm
“I don’t know a single self employed person who would EVER turn away business because they didn’t have the man power and were afraid to hire someone, the entire notion is just ludicrous.”
Well, if the cash was realized through savings or increased productivity, and not necessarily through increased sales, your premise would be wrong…………………if the customers are not multiplying, corps will not hire.
stands for decibels
November 23rd, 2010
1:55 pm
from the article linked @ 1.53:
Since 1980, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people employed in finance, broadly defined, has shot up from roughly five million to more than seven and a half million. During the same period, the profitability of the financial sector has increased greatly relative to other industries. Think of all the profits produced by businesses operating in the U.S. as a cake. Twenty-five years ago, the slice taken by financial firms was about a seventh of the whole. Last year, it was more than a quarter. (In 2006, at the peak of the boom, it was about a third.) In other words, during a period in which American companies have created iPhones, Home Depot, and Lipitor, the best place to work has been in an industry that doesn’t design, build, or sell a single tangible thing.
From the end of the Second World War until 1980 or thereabouts, people working in finance earned about the same, on average and taking account of their qualifications, as people in other industries. By 2006, wages in the financial sector were about sixty per cent higher than wages elsewhere. And in the richest segment of the financial industry—on Wall Street, that is—compensation has gone up even more dramatically. Last year, while many people were facing pay freezes or worse, the average pay of employees at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase’s investment bank jumped twenty-seven per cent, to more than three hundred and forty thousand dollars. This figure includes modestly paid workers at reception desks and in mail rooms, and it thus understates what senior bankers earn. At Goldman, it has been reported, nearly a thousand employees received bonuses of at least a million dollars in 2009.
Not surprisingly, Wall Street has become the preferred destination for the bright young people who used to want to start up their own companies, work for NASA, or join the Peace Corps. At Harvard this spring, about a third of the seniors with secure jobs were heading to work in finance. Ben Friedman, a professor of economics at Harvard, recently wrote an article lamenting “the direction of such a large fraction of our most-skilled, best-educated, and most highly motivated young citizens to the financial sector.”
Matti
November 23rd, 2010
1:55 pm
Wage suppression is an essential element of the plutocratic takeover.
Even smaller and mid-sized companies are learning that the employees left after the layoffs will work harder for less just to keep their jobs. The fewer jobs there are, the more people will be willing to work for minimum wage — something the incoming Congress will surely try to repeal. Sure, quality suffers, but profits soar! Ask the all-American execs at Harley-Davidson about profits. They slashed their workforce by 2,000, and saw second quarter profits of triple what they made all last year, even though sales are down. BTW, they plan to lay off another 1400-1600 in the next two years. The people left will do anything that’s asked… for less…. so long as they have no place to go. (Until the factory in India is complete, that is.)
The American dream is giving way to dependence on the corporations and conglomerates that own our government. This is not a coincidence. Plutocracy doesn’t just happen. It’s planned and executed, all with the help of unwitting chumps who still believe they’ll be one of the wealthy one day. (*snerk* Yeah right. Buy another lottery ticket, Sparky. I did.)
I'm rich and your not.
November 23rd, 2010
1:56 pm
If everyone was in business for themselves no one would ever pay unemployment compensation. Think of the money saved.
jewcowboy
November 23rd, 2010
1:56 pm
Some People are stupid,
You were saying…
Some People are stupid
November 23rd, 2010
1:58 pm
Del-
Your whole last statement lacked any sense.
1. From a start-up standpoint, all cost are tax deductible.
2. If I am a start up business, the chances of me hiring 50 people off from the beginning is relatively small so the health care law wouldn’t even reach me.
3. To start a start up, I need a lot of capital, kinda hard to get capital with frozen credit markets.
Randalph on the Right
November 23rd, 2010
1:58 pm
The shooting war in Korea might spark job growth!
Finn McCool
November 23rd, 2010
2:00 pm
Lots of jobs helping states transition to the new health care world. But, to quote Austin Powers, ” that ain’t my bag, baby.”
md
November 23rd, 2010
2:01 pm
Well, speaking of the finance industry……….check out this sweet deal worked out by the FDIC:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fiercefreeleancer
I haven’t researched it though, so take it with a grain of salt……….but if true, will make your blood boil.
Southern Comfort
November 23rd, 2010
2:02 pm
Companies laid off workers and then found that they were getting more production with fewer people. The ones left had to pick up the slack and actually WORK while they were at work.
The ones left had to work like their lives depended on it after seeing other productive people get laid off. It’s not like there was a productive slump prior to the layoffs. The American worker has become more and more efficient over the past 2-3 decades, yet the wages have stagnated. If you’re on the hot seat, you’re gonna find any way possible to get more productive in order to save your job.
If I’m at work and you see me post here, that’s because there’s nobody in front of me for me to perform my duties. My job ALWAYS comes before this blog or anything else non-job related.
Fred
November 23rd, 2010
2:02 pm
I’d like to start a furniture company but I can’t get a loan. My credit score is some where around 790…………
Lord Help Us
November 23rd, 2010
2:03 pm
Yes, Del…The horror of a healthcare law that will help small businesses provide healthcare to its employees and the (GASP!!) utter terror or possibly being taxed about 3% more than the current rate (if they are very cusscessful) has hundreds, perhaps thousands, or ‘would-be entrepreneurs’ sitting on the sidelines waiting for HCR to be repealed and the Bush tax cuts to be extended permanently…
Paulo977
November 23rd, 2010
2:04 pm
Lil’Barry
Bailout…@1:42pm
Simple …They are closet republicans the way DEAL was before he came out!!!
Granny Godzilla
November 23rd, 2010
2:06 pm
I’ve said it before….
Our economy is being held hostage by the plutocrats, and it seems most of the right wing is infected with the Stockholm Syndrome.