After averaging 6% of GDP for the last 60 years, after-tax corporate profits are now at over 10.5%! This is the highest level since official records began in 1947.

This is certainly great news for the economy, stock holders and corporate executives.

In 2011 the chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the U.S. (as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets and market value) got a collective pay raise of 16% last year, to $5.2 billion.