Article • Dean Baker’s Beat the Press
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Amazingly, it seems that the media managed to completely ignore the sharp upward revision to profit shares reported on Wednesday. This one is pretty simple. By redefining many corporate expenses for research and creative work as investment, which depreciates through time rather than being a one-time cost, profits will be increased. As a result of this change the profit share in recent years was revised sharply upward. The after-tax share of profits in net corporate income for each of the last three years was higher than at any previous point in the post-war era.
Is there some reason that this fact was not mentioned in any of the reporting on the GDP?