BUSINESSMEN have been worrying that higher taxes, tight money and the rising cost of labor would combine to pinch their profits this year. That feeling was strengthened when a drop in automakers' earnings stalled the six-year rise in total industrial profits during the second quarter. But last week early reports for the third quarter indicated that corporate income has rebounded to a new postwar peak of close to $50 billion a year after taxes.
Sharp profit increases spread across such industries as electric manufacturing, data processing, papermaking, drugs and rubber. Record third-quarter earnings...