I understand where you're coming from. It's confusing to me to see this bifurcation developing because in the past when the economy recovered and corporate profits took off, wages and standards of living took off, too. But it's different now, even though there will be winners and losers in the corporate world.
What is needed is a purging of debt and a purging of other unaffordable excesses - like bad union contracts.
If you mean bad union contracts corporations have made, doesn't purging them benefit the profits of the corporation?
Public employees unions are a different ball of wax, of course.
As you pointed out, the multinationals are generally in the best shape. They don't need a flush American consumer as much. If the standard of living drops too much, certainly some American companies will be hurt, such as retailers. OTOH, if workers become more willing to take less pay and lower benefits, which they've had to do now for several years, corporate profitability will remain strong. This is what I mean by confusing and bifurcated. Because of my own deep pessimism about the debt, the future, entitilements, etc., I have to keep reminding myself that publicly traded companies are actually in surprisingly good shape. |
