Stuffing the Corporate Mattress

In an earlier post, I mentioned that US corporations are sitting on something just south of $2,000,000,000,000. This matters, because it demonstrates that corporations have all the money they need to invest in physical plant and equipment. The shibboleth of government deficits stealing money from the hungry capitalists is bunk (well, if it's a shibboleth, *it is* bunk). So, what's been the history of capital investment, and profit/retained earnings? Is the current crop of Daddy Warbucks more, or less, biased toward purely fiduciary activities as against physical investment?

Where's the data?

I haven't yet found a time series of corporate profit and physical investment (and likely won't) here's a snippet from Bloomberg, not your average left wingnut organ.

Corporations are holding more than $1.7 trillion in liquid assets, reflecting uncertainty over future policies. They're investing in capital projects only 80 percent of their available internal funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Though that figure is up about one-third from late-2009, that ratio has been below 80 percent only once since the end of 1958.

American capitalists still view profit as declining wages. Killing the middle class is quite the same as killing the golden goose. In past times, even Henry Ford understood this. That such behaviour leads to Depression doesn't get through; or may be it does. If you're sitting on $1.7 trillion, Dee Flation is your best buddy.