If you believe Robert Barro, the nine less-than-professional Republican economists, or any of a host of others, we ought to be seeing annual investment spending leaping upward by $600 billion this year. We are not: Pedro Nicolaci da Costa: Tax cuts fail to boost corporate investment plans, Fed survey shows: "Trump claimed the tax bill would lead to a huge boost in business spending—but there's no sign of it yet...
...New tax cuts are unlikely to spur business investment to any large extent, according to a new survey conducted by the Atlanta Fed in conjuction with academics. The survey shows some three-quarters of executives had made no spending plans at all in response to the passage of the tax cuts. "We're sticking with our initial assessment that the potential for a sharp acceleration in near-term output growth is limited," Atlanta Fed economists write. Republicans' pitch on tax cuts was fairly clear: Lower rates on corporations would spur investment and create new jobs.... Some three-quarters of executives reported no changes in investment plans at all.... "The typical (or median) large firm has not revised its 2019 capex plans in response to tax changes," Atlanta Fed economists write in their macroblog. Given that backdrop, the economists write, "we're sticking with our initial assessment that the potential for a sharp acceleration in near-term output growth is limited"...
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