If American labor had been able to demand a greater share of the wealth created, corporate profits would have been far lower.
I would push back a bit. First, I think these easy money policies are basically "possible" whenever the Fed mandates them (and the markets simply react accordingly). My point here is that they actually don't have to be rooted in any kind of fundamentals. Even now, the Fed is basically willing to blow up foreign markets (which might seem irrational) because it doesn't want Americans to go through inflation.
Second, while I do agree that cheap labor has enabled some of this, it's mostly due to China's insistence on treating its citizens like chattel; and, yes, to some extent the West being complicit, though calling it colonialism deflects blame from the true architects of this evil: the CCP.
> and if American labor had been able to demand a greater share of the wealth
The way I see things, wealth demanded is a function of leverage. American labor has no leverage when compared to Chinese labor (maybe apart from quality), and therefore always loses out.
> Even now, the Fed ... doesn't want Americans to go through inflation.
Exactly. The Fed's current behavior shows that they probably would not have lowered interest rates so much if the resulting inflation hadn't been countered by lower manufacturing costs.
> American labor has no leverage when compared to Chinese labor
Yes, and this was, I believe, that issue that photochemsyn was referring to. If manufacturers making products for the American market had to obey American labor laws (and other regulations), then American labor would at least be competing on equal footing.
As far as real estate, that's been highly manipulated (tax havens, money laundering etc.) as well as heavily subsidized (in favor of large owners) by the federal government (i.e. subprime bailouts, etc.).
The impact of "cheap and often undocumented labor from poor countries" is minuscule, especially considering the sectors that have the highest profit margins aren't low-skill manufacturers, but rather finance, tech, real estate, private equity, and so on.
There are two main issues at play here: corporate debt levels, and interest rates. The article does a pretty good job of covering both, and trying to spin the past few decades as some sort of "corporate colonialism" is missing the forest for the trees.