The evidence for criminal levels of profiteering is conclusive

Something serious needs to be done about this. And the public will certainly respond positively, if that happens.

Progressive demands for congressional action to curb corporate monopoly power were renewed Friday after federal data confirmed that certain heavily consolidated industries are continuing to rake in massive profits while working households struggle under the weight of high prices.

The latest figures from the Bureau for Economic Analysis show that the profits of the U.S. coal and oil industry increased 340% between the first and second quarters of 2022. Companies selling petroleum and coal products made an estimated $49.7 billion in profits from April to June, compared with $11.3 billion from January to March.

Meanwhile, executives in the nation's transportation and warehousing sector enjoyed a nearly 40% increase in profits during the same time period, pocketing $124.4 billion in the second quarter after taking home $89.4 billion over the first three months of the year.

"We've heard directly from executives in the sectors that families depend on—from oil, to auto shops, to airlines—that inflation has been good for business," Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement.

"The latest corporate profit data shows their price strategies are bearing fruit," she added. - Common Dreams

U.S. jobs are coming back

With plenty of caveats.

Thanks, Joe Biden! The Wall Street Journal is reporting that U.S. companies are moving nearly 350,000 overseas jobs back to the United States this year—a new record—as companies become a wee bit more wary about chasing cheap labor overseas and look to move infrastructure a bit closer to home. Again: Thanks, Joe Biden!

I'm kidding, mostly. The ability of presidents to shift global economic patterns is marginal at best, and business trends 18 months into a presidency may still likely be the result of corporate decisions made even earlier. There's really only one way for a U.S. president to dramatically reconfigure worldwide capitalism in a short period of time, and that's to screw something up to near-apocalyptic levels. To so botch world markets that they're on the brink of collapse. So what we really should be saying here is: Thanks, Donald Trump! - Daily Kos