There's a reason why corporate profits are at all time highs. they're just pushing any inflation related costs and more directly to consumers and scraping even more profit off the top.
This is actually just not even controversial, completely supported by data.
> Why would you not expect nominal profits to be at all time highs if the purchasing power of the currency goes down?
Purchasing power doesn't magically decrease, it's a function of increasing prices.
Think about for a little. If a companies input costs have increased by 10% their profit will decrease right, maybe not by 10% but it will decrease. So if they increase their prices they can get back to their previous profit level. Instead they have increased prices even more such that their profit is HIGHER than it was before inflation.
Obviously, a 3% profit margin after a year of inflation is going to be nominally higher than a 3% profit margin before the year of inflation.
Hence any whining about nominal increases in profit is innumeracy, or clickbait, especially for businesses that play in the sub 5% profit margin ranges.
How low do people think grocery store profit margins should go? Have they tried successfully operating a business at 3% profit margin?
Some businesses’ profits are keeping up with inflation, and some are not. Grocery stores sell relatively inelastic goods at already low profit margins, so there is not much room to not keep up with inflation. The other option for them would be going out of business.
The stock market hasn't been connected to reality for years. Companies which produce nothing and are deep in debt have high stock value purely on basis of speculation. Most companies that report layoffs, tough times etc also report record levels of profit because it's not enough to be profitable, you have to go well above and beyond profit. You have to squeeze out everything even at the cost of short term stability.
Which companies that produce nothing and are deep in debt have shown growth in market cap?
From what I can tell, the biggest gains have been at companies that have very strong profits and prospects due to high barriers of entry to their business, and the companies with steady but small profits do okay, and the companies not earning any profits have shown losses.
This is actually just not even controversial, completely supported by data.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CP