Where's the Growth? Not in Top-Line Sales

Bloomberg released some revealing stats yesterday showing little growth in top-line revenue growth over the past year outside financials and tech.

According to Bloomberg, year-over-year sales growth among companies within the S&P 500 has averaged 15.7%, but exclude financials and that number collapses to 2.2%. Take out Apple (AAPL) (even leaving in the rest of the tech) and that number shrivels to 0.5%.

Those last two numbers are below the 12-month rate of inflation (according to the consumer price index). That means the corporate sector represented by the S&P has actually shrunk. Given that small businesses have clearly fared even worse, the entire U.S. economy has clearly shrunk in real terms over the past year.

Recovery hype, inventory corrections, great drama over the coming Apple tablet and somersaults at CNBC notwithstanding, there's no growth in the U.S. economy outside government-supported finance and tech (read: Apple).

Earnings growth within the S&P over the past year has been driven primarily by cost cutting, growth outside the U.S. and DC's gigantic subsidies of the financial sector.

The bottom line is that there hasn't been much of a top line over the past year.