This is from BizStats.
By following this path through the options --
Home: Industry Financial Benchmark Reports: Corporations: Finance-Insurance
and then the top item, again Finance-Insurance
-- I came upon this interesting table:
I narrowed'er down to fit the blog, but I didn't make up those numbers! Here, for comparison, is the table for manufacturing:
1 comment:
Probably wouldn't have thought about finacial industry versus manufacturing if no for your chart comparing margins for the two industries.
Just so happened that I had come across an article that contained these tidbits:
"Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) pointed out the truth of the Obama administration’s stimulus program: “Larry Summers hates infrastructure. And some of these other economists — they don’t like infrastructure. … They want to have a consumer-driven recovery.”
Both domestic manufacturing and taxation are opposed by the current corporate and political elites. Take the liberal establishment economist Alan Blinder, who horrified former Intel chief Andy Grove when he celebrated as “success” the fact that America today cannot make televisions. Or Michael Boskin, an economic adviser to President Reagan, saying potato chips, microchips, what’s the difference?"
We've traded comments on the "financialization" of our economy before, so this isn't a new topic. Yet as the derivatives pile created by shadow banking, easy money, and deregulation through the Glass-Steagall repeal/Financial Modernization Act grow past $200 trillion, maintaining the financial pyramid (some might call it a Ponzi) becomes necessary to maintaining a facade of economic growth. (Regulation saving jobs? Unheard of...)
We know average factory wages haven't climbed in real terms since 1980. We also know that half of the new jobs in May were from McDonald's. So it isn't a stretch to assume that the service economy won't rescue the middle class.
Knowing--and/or wanting--an end to our industrial economy is a political agenda. This is just like hyperinflation (which I wrote about on my blog) is caused by politics, not economics. If we aren't making anything, it figures we are giving up nothing more than more debt plus interest to buy things, and spend on services.
By not making things, we have gutted the unions, an undeniable major political goal for the neo-liberals/Chicago school.
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