US corporate profits as a percent of GDP are near their all-time highs. Take a look at this historical plot: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g

US corporate profits as a percent of GDP are near their all-time highs. Take a look at this historical plot: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=6ThF https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=6ThF I wonder how much of that is due to tax avoidance, whether legal or "unexpectedly illegal" (as in Apple's case). If governments around the world follow the lead of the EC, I would expect a noticeable decline in corporate profitability over the next five to 10 years. Note: I just generated the plot above as a png at the St. Louis Fed's FRED website, and I don't know how long the image will remain available. To recreate it, plot the "Corporate Profits, Adjusted" series divided by the "Gross Domestic Product" series, using the same units for both series (e.g., nominal billions).