THE BUSH TAX CUTS WERE A FAIL

(h/t Ian Welsh)

I've never understood why conservatives think that the money retained by the rich will be spent in the United States and now we have some evidence that it wasn't.

Non-US groups reaped fruits of Bush tax cuts
By Richard Bernstein
Published: September 14 2010 17:47
FINANCIAL TIMES

The 2000s – that is, the period immediately following the Bush tax cuts – were the weakest decade in US postwar history for real non-residential capital investment.

Not only were the 2000s by far the weakest period, but the tax cuts did not even curtail the secular slowdown in the growth of business structures.

Rather, the slowdown accelerated into a full decline.

During each decade from the 1950s to the 1990s, growth in real gross non-residential investment averaged between 3.5 per cent and 7.4 per cent per decade. During the 2000s, it averaged a mere 1 per cent.

Similarly, the growth rate for investment in equipment and software ranged from 5.7 per cent to 9.9 per cent in these earlier decades. It averaged 1.9 per cent during the 2000s.

Average growth in non-residential structures ranged from 1.3 per cent to 5.7 per cent from the 1950s to the 1990s. During the 2000s, it declined by 0.8 per cent.