Joseph Quinlan, a Bank of America economist, says that some startling figures from the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis is the true measure of how American firms compete around the world.

Here’s what the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reports: Foreign affiliates of U.S. companies last year rang up $3.5 trillion in sales. Moreover profits are soaring overseas, and are now running at a rate of $250 billion annually.

The overseas branches of majority-owned U.S. affiliate firms number 24,000 and presently have more than 8 million employees in all corners of the globe.

U.S. companies are expanding abroad for two reasons, according to Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank backed by organized labor. Millions of skilled workers and college graduates will work for one-tenth the pay and benefits of Americans.

And second, U.S. companies are moving overseas because that’s where the fastest-growing markets are. Most of the biggest U.S. companies, including P&G, IBM, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola and Exxon, gain more than half of their sales and income outside the U.S. They hire locally to serve local customers.

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