Labor vs profit share — distributive conflict
The reading heterodox lens
In the classical reading, the price level and the inflation surge are an outcome of distributive conflict between labor and capital, not of a stable NAIRU. The labor share's secular decline and the sharp 2021-2022 jump in the corporate profit share are the empirical core of the 'markups-vs-unit-labor-costs' debate. Both camps are shown; the data is neutral, the reading is labeled.
Interpretation is labeled as interpretation. The underlying series are official BLS/BEA data (or, where noted, an explicitly constructed classification) and are downloadable below each chart and in the Explorer.