If the Economy Is Shaky, Why Are Company Profits Still Strong?

Last edited Thu Aug 4, 2022, 10:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Consumers are gloomy, the economy is shrinking, the Federal Reserve wants it to keep slowing and economists now say the whole world could be sliding toward recession.

At the same time, a lot of strong numbers are still coming out of many large American companies, which have been releasing their quarterly earnings reports and discussing their outlooks with Wall Street.

“We had an outstanding quarter,” Stephen Squeri, the chief executive of American Express, said after the company reported record revenue. “As our second-quarter results demonstrate, we have a lot to be proud of,” said Christopher Nassetta, chief executive of Hilton Worldwide, noting that revenue per room in most major regions of the world was now above 2019 levels.

The blustery corporate optimism may seem at odds with the Fed’s grim determination to hold back the economy to get inflation down. But the economy is both what the Fed does and how companies and consumers are behaving. And the full picture of this strange economic moment is perhaps better captured by considering both sides together, central bankers and C.E.O.s, no matter how divergent they seem.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/business/strong-profits-shaky-economy.html

My CoCoCo link on this:
http://cococo.pbworks.com/w/page/147977928/Record%20Profits%20in%20the%20Time%20of%20Inflation