Corporate profits hit highest share since WWII, as worker payouts wilt

marojejian

free w/ signup, but here's the archive anyhow: https://archive.is/wU0s9 Pretty impressive long-term charts, and dramatic surge in the last years. Of course there are lot of other relevant details (e.g. more people own capital, and this is pre-tax numbers). But overall this seems pretty consistent with the story Piketty tells in Capital in the Twenty-First Century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Ce...

nojvek

Automation can’t be taxed. Servers consuming electricity in data centers to generate what the next ad someone will click isn’t the same as paying employee salary. It’s not taxed. So Trump cuts tax on the rich, and the rich cut out human workers or depress their pay. The debt will have to be reckoned with if the govt ain’t getting their share to build infrastructure. On the other hand US has the highest participation of people who own stock. Unlike China, where the median Chinese doesn’t benefit from growth of state run companies.

kerblang

Are corporate profits actually at a peak, or just their percentage share of national profit (per the article)? Not in denial about the wealth gap, just wondering where profit growth is coming from.