From 2003 to 2011 total corporate profits more than doubled from $900 billion to almost $2 trillion. The financial industry up to 1985 never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits has recently reached 41 percent. Just 12 large banks hold 69 percent of industry assets, close to $8 trillion. Anywhere from $2.2 trillion to $3.4 trillion in cash is being held by non-financial corporations. They have chosen to fatten stockholders rather than invest in new production facilities and the employees needed to make them profitable. They are not lending the money available. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, community banks, which hold less than one-fifth of industry assets, provide over half of all small business loans. Government have also played the dominant role in the research of new technologies, with an emphasis on the long-term basic research that painstakingly perfects design while not yet producing revenue. Corporate R&D, on the other hand, is heavy on the profit-making late stages of development. Even during the frenetic growth of the 1990s, industry funding for computer research declined dramatically while government research funding continued to climb. As of 2009 universities were still receiving ten times more science & engineering funding from government than from industry.
For the twenty years prior to the 2008 recession, corporations paid an average annual rate of 22.5% in federal taxes. Since then the average has been 10%.
Verizon, which made $38 billion in 2008-11 and paid no tax, cut 41,100 jobs.
AT&T, which made $9 billion in 20011 and paid no tax, cut 54,000 jobs.
Merck, made $34 billion in 2008-11 and paid a 7% tax, cut 13,000 jobs.
Citigroup, which made a $28 billion profit in 2010-11 and paid no tax.
Boeing, which made $15 billion in profits in 2008-11 and paid no tax.
IBM, made $75 billion in profits in 2008-11 and paid less than 2% in taxes.
HP, which $40 billion in profits in 2008-11 and paid an 11% tax.
Pepsico, which made a $10 billion profit in 2011 and paid a 6.3% tax.
Proctor & Gamble, made $60 billion in profits in 2008-11 paid 11% in taxes.
Google, avoided about $2 billion in 2011 taxes by shifting revenue to a tax haven.
Average real wages were $17.42 in 2007, down from $19.34 in 1972 (based on 2007 dollars). Wages as a percentage of the economy, at 44% of GDP, are at an all-time low. Apple is a good example of the race to the bottom for wages, with an estimated $420,000 profit per employee and a $12 per hour pay rate for its store workers. 43.9% of Americans — that is roughly 137 million people — are living on the edge of collapse: a job loss, health crisis or income-crushing emergency, and they would not have enough money to cover expenses "at the federal poverty level" for three months. Nearly 40% of American households — which translates to more than 100 million people — live paycheck to paycheck. More than 46 million Americans live at or below the poverty level, which is $23,201 for a family of four. That's $5,800 per person. 6 million people have no income other than food stamps, which means they are living on $6,000 a year.
Roughly half of Americans own some stocks through their mutual funds and pension funds. Only about a third of all Americans hold more than $10,000 in stock, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. So while more Americans hold stock, they don't hold much. Wealth for most families comes from their homes and jobs. Yet just one percent of Americans own 52 percent of all directly owned, publicly traded stocks in the United States. The top 5 percent own 82 percent of directly held stocks. According to figures from Cerulli Associates, investors with less than $100,000 in investible assets on average had $17,975 in the stock market at the end of 2011, down from $19,732 at the end of 2007. Those with $500,000 to $2 million saw their average increase by $63,000, to $966,948.
"Gains from the recent uptick in the stock market go almost entirely into the hands of the rich," said Edward Wolff, an economics professor at New York University who specializes in household wealth.
Millions of people have become disenchanted with our political and economic democracy.
For the twenty years prior to the 2008 recession, corporations paid an average annual rate of 22.5% in federal taxes. Since then the average has been 10%.
Verizon, which made $38 billion in 2008-11 and paid no tax, cut 41,100 jobs.
AT&T, which made $9 billion in 20011 and paid no tax, cut 54,000 jobs.
Merck, made $34 billion in 2008-11 and paid a 7% tax, cut 13,000 jobs.
Citigroup, which made a $28 billion profit in 2010-11 and paid no tax.
Boeing, which made $15 billion in profits in 2008-11 and paid no tax.
IBM, made $75 billion in profits in 2008-11 and paid less than 2% in taxes.
HP, which $40 billion in profits in 2008-11 and paid an 11% tax.
Pepsico, which made a $10 billion profit in 2011 and paid a 6.3% tax.
Proctor & Gamble, made $60 billion in profits in 2008-11 paid 11% in taxes.
Google, avoided about $2 billion in 2011 taxes by shifting revenue to a tax haven.
Average real wages were $17.42 in 2007, down from $19.34 in 1972 (based on 2007 dollars). Wages as a percentage of the economy, at 44% of GDP, are at an all-time low. Apple is a good example of the race to the bottom for wages, with an estimated $420,000 profit per employee and a $12 per hour pay rate for its store workers. 43.9% of Americans — that is roughly 137 million people — are living on the edge of collapse: a job loss, health crisis or income-crushing emergency, and they would not have enough money to cover expenses "at the federal poverty level" for three months. Nearly 40% of American households — which translates to more than 100 million people — live paycheck to paycheck. More than 46 million Americans live at or below the poverty level, which is $23,201 for a family of four. That's $5,800 per person. 6 million people have no income other than food stamps, which means they are living on $6,000 a year.
Roughly half of Americans own some stocks through their mutual funds and pension funds. Only about a third of all Americans hold more than $10,000 in stock, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute. So while more Americans hold stock, they don't hold much. Wealth for most families comes from their homes and jobs. Yet just one percent of Americans own 52 percent of all directly owned, publicly traded stocks in the United States. The top 5 percent own 82 percent of directly held stocks. According to figures from Cerulli Associates, investors with less than $100,000 in investible assets on average had $17,975 in the stock market at the end of 2011, down from $19,732 at the end of 2007. Those with $500,000 to $2 million saw their average increase by $63,000, to $966,948.
"Gains from the recent uptick in the stock market go almost entirely into the hands of the rich," said Edward Wolff, an economics professor at New York University who specializes in household wealth.
Millions of people have become disenchanted with our political and economic democracy.
2 comments:
This is a very informative piece which would have been made clearer if it had been pointed out at the beginning that the figures all related to the US
Apologies for not highlighting that fact but i thought it apparent that it was the US. Also I thought the $-SIGN was suffice but of course both canada and australia amongst many other countries use $.
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