Good news and bad news for workers: corporate profits rose in third quarter

  - by New Deal democrat

The BEA's revised release for 3rd quarter GDP included its calculation of corporate protifts, which rose 1.5% over the 2nd quarter, and once again made an all time high.

This is both good news and bad news.

The good news is that corporate profits, deflated by unit labor costs, also made a new high. This is a long leading indicator, meaning that it usually starts to decline one year or more before a recession starts. This in turn means that more jobs should continue be added to the eonomy over the next year.  Companies with shrinking profits do not hire new workers; companies with increasing profits do.

The bad news, of course, is that corporate profits continue to monopolize virtually all of the monetary gains since the economy started to expand in the second half of 2009.  Wages are still not sharing in the bounty.

I'll have more at XE.com later, and I'll post a link  UPDATE:  Here's the link.  I discuss this release in the broader context of the economy. It is virtually across the board good news.