This stands in contrast to the United States, where fiscal policy eased more in the initial phase of the crisis, by about 6.5% of potential GDP in total over 2008–09, and then tightened by about 5.5% of potential GDP from 2011 to 2013 when the economic recovery was underway.
That increase in competitive pressure, as history has amply demonstrated, with time, returns markups to more normal levels. Over the past three decades, the share of the profits of nonfinancial corporations in the total nominal income of that sector has fluctuated around a longer-run average of roughly 10-1/2 percent.