----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Perelman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Business week reports: "Finance supplies 30% of all U.S. company profits, as of last Sept. 30, up from 21% a decade ago, according to federal government data." This figure includes the financial operations of manufacturing companies. How did they get this breakdown?
Don't know but would be interested. Some data I usually show students sound like this (I can send the powerpoints if anyone wants):
Manufacturing revenues were responsible for roughly half of total (before-tax) corporate profits during the quarter-century post-war 'Golden Age', but fell to below 20% by the early 2000s.[1] In contrast, profits were soon much stronger in the financial sector (rising from the 10-20% range during the 1950s-60s, to above 30% by 2000) and in corporations' global operations (rising from 4-8% to above 20% by 2000) [ppt12]. We also know that since the Volcker shock changed the interest/profit calculus, there have been far more revenues accruing to capital based in finance than in the non-financial sector [ppt13], to the extent that financiers doubled their asset base in relation to non-financial peers during the 1980s-90s [ppt14]. Moreover, as Gerald Epstein and Dorothy Power show, rentier income doubled as a share of GDP from around 15% during the 1960s to above 30% for most of the 1980s-90s [ppt15].[2]
[1] Dum�nil, G. and D. L�vy (2003), 'Costs and Benefits of Neoliberalism: A Class Analysis,' Unpublished paper, Cepremap, Paris. [2] Epstein, G. and D.Power (2002), 'The Return of Finance and Finance's Returns: Recent Trends in Rentier Incomes in OECD Countries, 1960-2000,' University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Instiute Research Brief 2002-2, Amherst, November.
