surge in U.S. corporate profits

[Allin Cottrell <cottrell@xxxxxxx>]

Sorry if this has been discussed and I missed it, but I'm wondering if
anyone has an analysis of the recent surge in corporate profit in the
USA.

Here are the first-quarter figures for the last few years (choice of
quarter makes little difference), plus the latest few observations,
for the variable cpatax ("Corporate Profits After Tax with Inventory
Valuation Adjustment and Capital Consumption Adjustment, Billion $,
seasonally adjusted at annual rate") as available from the St Louis
Fed:

1999:1         593.2
2000:1         551.8
2001:1         536.7
2002:1         698.6
2003:1         713.2
2003:2         811.3
2003:3         893.7
2003:4         961.9

The 2003:4 figure stands 50% (!) above the previous peak (before a
downturn at the end of the '90s), of 641.5 in 1997:3.

--
Allin Cottrell
Department of Economics
Wake Forest University, NC