ECONOMY – PROFITS UP, WAGES STAGNATE

The Economic Policy Institute issued a new report noting that, while corporate profits have risen 62.2 percent since the peak of the last recovery, private-sector wages have decreased by 0.6 percent - the worst record of any "recovery" since World War II, and well under the historical average of 7.2 percent. But in the context of the Bush administration's policies, the numbers are not that surprising. The White House has blocked efforts to increase the minimum wage, tried to strip 8 million workers of overtime pay protections, and promoted the outsourcing of well-paid U.S. jobs to cheap overseas labor markets – all while pushing for billions in new tax breaks for chemical and energy companies.