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Profits Drop at Steepest Rate in 55 Years

Wall Street Journal Original article ›

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US corporate pretax profits fell by $250 billion in the fourth quarter 2008, a 16.5% drop from the previous quarter, according to the Commerce Department. In the financial sector the drop was $178 billion, and that does not include the huge writedowns as value of troubled assets dropped. Compared with the 4th quarter of 2007 the 4th quarter of 2008 showed a drop of 20%. What this does is reduce the level of investment in plnat and equipment, in technological improvements, in R&D that companies can make and in the ability to hire staff. Reflecting this the Commerce Department gave out new GDP numbers showing 6.3% drop in GDP on annualized basis in the 4th quarter of 2008. The Labor Department says 5.5 million Americans were on unemployment benefits for the week ending March 14, and 652,000 new claims for unemployment benefits last week rising from the week before, which should get the figure to 6 million.

Rising Unemployment in the U.S. in 2009.

01/31/2009

The number of people on unemployment benefits hit 5.56 million on March 14, according to the Labor Department, with 662,000 new claims filed since then.

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