USA TODAY: By most measures, the Great Recession has faded like a bad dream for U.S. companies. Profits at the Standard & Poor’s 500 big companies are expected to jump 15% this year to record levels, on top of a 47% jump last year…
Still, lackluster hiring by the nation’s largest employers is emblematic of an aftereffect of the overborrowing binge that triggered the recession, says James Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer.
“This recovery is different in that it was preceded by a terrific debt trauma,” he says. “The country is in the business of paying on debts or defaulting on them, and the burden of debt has weighed on growth in hiring.”… (more)
