PROFIT PERFORMANCE

While corporate profit growth has, of late, been strong, only one-third of the growth has come from rising revenues. Corporate profits are being primarily driven by intense cost-cutting. We know this because unit labor cost growth has been zero Y-o-Y, and real personal disposable income growth has been rising by less than 1% Y-o-Y since 2/24, just 40% of its 2014 through 2019 growth rate.