The Economic Recovery ... Of Profits

Oct 16, 2006

The U. S. government says that an economic recovery began in November 2001. A recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compared it to the nine prior economic recoveries since the end of World War II.

During the current so-called “recovery”, growth in the Gross Domestic Product was much weaker than in previous recoveries. There was also much slower growth in consumption. And corporations were investing at a much slower rate.

But it was the job market that performed the worst. The annual rate of increase in jobs was less than one%, that is, almost no new jobs were created. Even the weakest recoveries in the past created jobs at a much faster rate than this one.

The study also found that wages and salaries grew at a rate of 1.6% a year since 2001, compared to the average of 3.7% a year in previous recoveries. That is half as slow as the average recovery.

However, corporate profits did exceptionally well, increasing at a rate of 14%. This is twice as fast compared to other recoveries.

Of course, it is not hard to see where these profits came from. The bosses took them from the working class, by forcing fewer workers to do more work, and by paying them less.

Even official government statistics show that this so-called economic recovery has been a recovery only for the bosses and their profits. For the working class, these last five years have been one long depression.