Along with revisions to economic growth, BEA also released corporate profit figures this morning. Profits were way up for banks and way down for everyone else, but this is just a blip in the long-term picture:
I hadn't quite realized things were so stark. Nonfinancial corporations saw their profits skyrocket during the pandemic and then flatten out at a permanently higher level. Banks saw no growth, and then negative growth while inflation was high. Even with their rebound in Q1, their profits are still lower than they were five years ago.
Which is fine with me. But it's still a surprising difference in fortunes.
Is this because banks have lots of low-interest fixed-rate loans on their books that were issued prior to 2021? Or were corporate profits unusually high for the banking sector back in 2018 to 2020?
So where are net margins for the two?
Puts greedflation into context, don't it?
That makes it look like all that inflation was just companies raising prices and enforcing them with monopolies and other anti-competitive practices.