Price-Gouging Profits

 

Corporate profits soared to a record high in 2021

Data from the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that pre-tax profits over the whole year increased by 25 percent, reaching $2.8 trillion. 

The annualized rate of profit from the fourth quarter was even higher, at $2.94 trillion.

Meanwhile, hourly wages for U.S. workers increased by about 4.7 percent last year, which is equivalent to a pay cut of about 2.4 percent.

“Clearly, mega-corporations could easily absorb the higher costs of goods and services right now,” wrote Robert Reich, former labor secretary and economics professor at University of California, Berkeley. “They’re not raising prices because they have to. They’re doing it because – with so few competitors – they can. The problem, at its core, is corporate greed.”

Tyson’s CEO told shareholders that the company it’s only raising prices on meat products in order to cover inflation costs for the company. However, it posted profits of $1 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a 48 percent raise over the same period last year.

Corporate Profits Reached Record High of Nearly $3 Trillion in 2021 (truthout.org)