Oxfam – Power, Profits and the Pandemic

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Global Fortune 500 firms increased their profits by 156% from $820bn in 2009 to $2.1tn in 2019. The past decade has been the most profitable time in history for the world’s largest corporations. From FY 2016 to 2019, the top 59 most profitable companies globally distributed almost $2tn to their shareholders. Ten of the largest apparel brands alone paid a total of $21bn (an average of 74% of their profits in FY2019) to shareholders in dividends and stock buybacks. Oxfam: Excessive shareholder payouts before the crisis left companies, workers and governments vulnerable to the economic shock.