Corporate profits for 2011 increased 7.9% according to the BEA. This is quite the slowdown in comparison to 2010's 32.2% increase.

Profits from current production increased 7.9% in 2011, compared with an increase of 32.2% in 2010. Domestic profits increased 6.7%, compared with an increase of 41.6%. The rest-of-the-world component of profits increased 12.4%, compared with an increase of 6.0%.

Taxes on corporate income increased 1.3% in 2011, compared with an increase of 50.9% in 2010. Profits after tax with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments increased 9.9%, compared with an increase of 27.%. Dividends increased 10.3%, compared with an increase of 18.9%; current-production undistributed profits increased 9.4%, compared with an increase of 38.8%.

For just Q4 2011 corporate profits showed a 0.9% increase from Q3.

Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $16.8 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of $32.5 billion in the third quarter. Current-production cash flow (net cash flow with inventory valuation adjustment) -- the internal funds available to corporations for investment -- increased $44.8 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of $35.8 billion in the third.

Taxes for 2011 are way down in comparison to 2010 as are dividends.

Taxes on corporate income increased 1.3% in 2011, compared with an increase of 50.9% in 2010. Profits after tax with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments increased 9.9%, compared with an increase of 27.5%.

Dividends increased 10.3%, compared with an increase of 18.9%; current-production undistributed profits increased 9.4%, compared with an increase of 38.8%.

Looks like the financial Banksters reaped less profits in comparison to the real economy producers for 2011. While financial corporations dropped –$30.2 billion in profit for 2011, the non-financial corporations increased theirs by $38.9 billion. Manufacturing got the lions share, $36.7 billion with petroleum and coal being $19.6 billion of manufacturing's profits. Outside of manufacturing, information made a whopping $13.6 billion in 2011. Wow, I guess profiling people, transporting all of that data mining and categorizing it is quite profitable these days.

Information is a NAICS category that consists of publishing industries, including software publishing, and both traditional publishing and publishing exclusively on the Internet; the motion picture and sound recording industries; the broadcasting industries, including traditional broadcasting and those broadcasting exclusively over the Internet; the telecommunications industries; the industries known as Internet service providers and web search portals, data processing industries, and the information services industries.

Let's look at the compensation to employees annualized quarterly percent change. See employee compensation corresponding to profits? Nope.

For just Q4 2011, the great worker squeeze is alive and well:

In the fourth 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 unit labor and nonlabor costs that more than offset a decrease in unit prices.

Note the decrease in unit labor costs. In other words, while we have a jobs crisis, corporations are still pulling in dough, while not hiring and not increasing wages. The good news is profits have dramatically dropped since 2010, so maybe, finally, these corporations will have to add to payrolls to make more money.

One of the more foreboding pieces of information is Q4's corporate profits from the rest of the world. It's quite a collapse and we will assume due to the European crisis:

The rest-of-the-world component of profits decreased $41.5 billion in the fourth quarter, in contrast to an increase of $5.4 billion in the third. 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 fourth-quarter decrease was accounted for by a decrease in receipts and an increase in payments.

Check out who is raking it in again on domestic profits for Q4 and thank you Jesus for more free money from operation twist. Ya got it, our lovely bailed out Banksters otherwise known as the financial sector. Of course those profits were not passed onto workers in Q4 2011.

Domestic profits of financial corporations increased $29.9 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of $9.2 billion in the third. Domestic profits of nonfinancial corporations increased $28.4 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with an increase of $17.9 billion in the third. In the fourth 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 unit labor and nonlabor costs that more than offset a decrease in unit prices.

Now you know why Wall Street and the Banksters go nuts and froth at the mouth, like Pavlovian dogs, over just the hint of more quantitative easing. Yup, it's free money for them.