by Pam Martens and Russ Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Senator Elizabeth Warren, during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday night, made the following statement:
“Here’s the thing: America isn’t going broke. The stock market is breaking records. Corporate profits are at all-time highs. CEOs make tens of millions of dollars. There’s lots of wealth in America, but it isn’t trickling down to hard-working families like yours.”
It is true that the stock market has been setting new record highs as measured by the Standard and Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average but that’s primarily because corporations are going into deeper debt and using the money to buy back their own stock. This is happening at a time of a scary profits recession for corporate America. Not only are profits not setting records, but profits in the S&P 500 have declined year-over-year for the past four quarters and this is shaping up to be the fifth consecutive quarter of profit declines.