US Commerce Dept's Bureau of Economic Analysis Just Reported in Its Table 12 1Q 2018 Total US Co Pretax Income Was Up 6.8% Over the 1Q 2017, Significantly Below My 12.2% Growth For All 2,018 US Publicly-Held Cos With Stock Market Caps Above $1 Bil Filing With the SEC ........................................................................................ I Wish I Could Understand Why the US Commerce Dept Has Lower 1Q 2018 US Pretax Income Growth Than I Do ..... Maybe It's the Lower US Pretax Income Growth For US Privately-Held US Cos? Or Maybe Some of the Individual Companies Earnings Growth Being Reported to the SEC Isn't Real and Instead is Being Artificially Inflated By Accounting Engineering Maneuvers? After Reviewing More Than 2,000 of Them in Depth, My Hunch is That It's Much More the Latter ........................................................................................ Given the Importance of This US Cos Total Pretax Profit Growth In Measuring the Success of US Capitalism, I Think It Would Be Wise For the US Commerce Dept and the US SEC To Reconcile Their 1Q 2018 Total Profit Increase Differences ........................................................................................ The US Stock Market Cannot Like This Huge Discrepancy in US Pretax Profit Numbers ..... Earnings Drive Stock Prices