The Real and Financial Components of Profitability (United States, 1952–2000)

TLDR

Financial relations significantly reshape the profit rate profile of nonfinancial corporations. Profit rates stayed high through the 1970s, declined in the 1980s and 1990s, and the financial sector’s average rate mirrored this pattern—lower in the 1970s and rising during neoliberal decades.

Abstract

Financial relations considerably alter the profile of the profit rate of nonfinancial corporations. Large rates are maintained to the end of the 1970s. Conversely, rates are diminished during the 1980s and 1990s. The average value of the profit rate of the financial sector is similar, though lower during the 1970s, due to low real interest rates and a stagnating stock market. The opposite is true during the neoliberal decades.