Capitalists use economic crises to their advantage--among them are the opportunities to buy up distressed companies and assets on the cheap, to cut wages and benefits, to weaken unions, etc. Remember Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's quote? (“You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste....")
US corporate profits are soaring in the midst of the deepest economic slump since the Great Depression, on the basis of a ruthless policy of using mass unemployment to slash wages and heighten the exploitation of American workers. In order to make the impoverishment of the working class a permanent feature of American life, companies are hoarding vast amounts of cash rather than hiring workers and expanding output.
These are the conclusions that flow from a Wall Street Journal analysis of second-quarter 2010 corporate profits....