The 500 largest US companies piled up record profits last year, despite a lackluster economy, and energy giant ExxonMobil ousted Wal-Mart as the biggest revenue maker, Fortune magazine said Monday.There it is right there, 16% profit gains for 2011 over 2010, a record high of $825 Billion… Over one hundred million are unemployed in the U.S., Greece is collapsing amidst the ongoing depression which will, soon enough, take out the rest of Europe, but never fear the fortune 500 are in good shape.
The combined earnings of the Fortune 500 corporations rose 16 percent from 2010 to a record high of $825 billion in 2011, the magazine said.
I think I am more disturbed that the first article I have quoted fails to consider things like that Exxonmobile is an OIL COMPANY who has been effectively stealing from us by raising the price of gas for no good reason other than to beat Walmart*.
"Today the Fortune 500 employs 25.8 million people worldwide, up by less than 1.0 percent since 2007," Fortune said.They have hired less than 1% (a quarter million people) in the past 5 years but, in a single year, earned 16% more. This indicates that the richest companies either, have figured out how to do more with less people, or they are gouging on their products and services, or even, a little of both.
Neither of these situations are very healthy for the economy as it leaves larger numbers of unemployed, with less disposable income, buying less more expensive products. The math is fairly simple. Given that the economy is somewhat of a giant ponzi scheme requiring more money from more people put into it each year to continue to function, this cannot end well.
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