consumption adjustments) increased $81.4 billion in the first quarter, compared with an increase of $108.7 billion in the fourth quarter. Current-production cash flow (net cash flow with inventory valuation adjustment) -- the internal funds available to corporations for investment -- increased $30.8 billion in the first quarter, compared with an increase of $69.1 billion in the fourth.
Corporate Profits
Taxes on corporate income increased $57.7 billion in the first quarter, compared with an increase of $40.9 billion in the fourth quarter. Profits after tax with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments increased $23.7 billion in the first quarter, compared with an increase of $67.8 billion in the fourth. Dividends decreased $26.2 billion, in contrast to an increase of $29.1 billion; current-production undistributed profits increased $49.9 billion, compared with an increase of $38.7 billion.
Domestic profits of financial corporations increased $7.4 billion in the first quarter, compared
with an increase of $65.0 billion in the fourth quarter. Domestic profits of nonfinancial corporations increased $44.5 billion in the first quarter, compared with an increase of $59.8 billion in the fourth. In the first quarter, real gross value added of nonfinancial corporations increased, and profits per unit of real value added increased. The increase in unit profits reflected decreases in both the unit labor and non labor costs corporations incurred that more than offset a decrease in unit prices.
The rest-of-the-world component of profits increased $29.5 billion in the first quarter, in contrast to a decrease of $16.1 billion in the fourth quarter. This measure is calculated as (1) receipts by U.S. residents of earnings from their foreign affiliates plus dividends received by U.S. residents from unaffiliated foreign corporations minus (2) payments by U.S. affiliates of earnings to their foreign parents plus dividends paid by U.S. corporations to unaffiliated foreign residents. The first-quarter increase was accounted for by an increase in receipts and a slight decrease in payments.
Profits before tax increased $180.9 billion in the first quarter, compared with an increase of
$137.0 billion in the fourth quarter. The before-tax measure of profits does not reflect, as does profits from current production, the capital consumption and inventory valuation adjustments. These adjustments convert depreciation of fixed assets and inventory withdrawals reported on a tax-return, historical-cost basis to the current-cost measures used in the national income and product accounts.
The capital consumption adjustment decreased $107.2 billion in the first quarter (from -$118.8 billion to -$226.0 billion), in contrast to an increase of $0.1 billion in the fourth. The inventory valuation adjustment increased $7.7 billion (from -$45.6 billion to -$37.9 billion), in contrast to a decrease of $28.5 billion.
Original content Bob DeMarco, All American Investor
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