A footnote to my posting on US profitability. In its Economic Outlook, the OECD publishes data on "rates of return on capital in the business sector," which they don't define in the volume (but which may be described in the documentation available on their web site). Most countries exhibit a pattern similar to that of the U.S., with a steady recovery from long-term lows in profitability in the early 1980s. German profit rates bottomed at 9.9% in 1982, after averaging 11.8% in the 1970s, and have since risen to 14.1% in 1996; the UK, from 10.1% in the 1970s to 8.1% in 1981 to 12.5% in 1996; the EU as a whole, from 12.6% in the 1970s to 10.7% in 1981 to 14.7% in 1996. The U.S., on this measure, went from 14.0% in the 1970s to 12.6% in 1982 to 18.4% last year. An exception to this pattern is Japan, which had an averaage profit rate of 17.9% in the 1970s, stayed fairly steady in the 14-16% range through the 1980s, and settled back to 13.9% in 1996. There's no note warning against cross-national comparisons, so I take that as a license to be reckless. The country with the highest return in the OECD in 1996 was Greece, at 22.7%; next came Canada, at 19.2%; Spain was next, 18.9%; and in fourth place, the US, at 18.4%. Switzerland came in the lowest, at 3.4%; Finland, second from the bottom, at 8.9%. Also clustering in the bottom were Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
