QOTD: Record profits not enough

Quote of the Day:

Politico has a story entitled, "Business: Barack Obama's outreach not enough," which details the complaints of the business lobby:

After business leaders sank millions into the midterms to defeat Democrats, a chastened Obama administration is seeking reconciliation with the corporate community.

But after two years of building frustration, the executives say they won’t be won over by another round of private lunches and photo opportunities at the White House.

If President Barack Obama has any hope for a truce with corporate America in time for his 2012 reelection campaign, he needs to drop the name-calling, try to see their point of view better and step up with some specific proposals.

As I was trying to figure out how to comment on this, I saw a news story in the New York Times:

The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever.

American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.66 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or non-inflation-adjusted terms.

Corporate profits have been going gangbusters for a while. Since their cyclical low in the fourth quarter of 2008, profits have grown for seven consecutive quarters, at some of the fastest rates in history.

It's historically unusual enough that we live in a period of record corporate profits coinciding with stagnant incomes. What's amazing is that the business world views this situation as symptomatic of insufficiently pro-business policies, and, further, that this complaint has recieved a widespread and generally sympathetic hearing in the political media. - Jonathan Chait