> So much of the argument behind the 2017 tax cuts and the Fed's low interest rates was that they would spur real investment (that is, investment which increases productive capacity or improves productivity) that would benefit everyone, mainly through jobs.
Sure. Do we have any reason to think that's not working? When an investor makes a successful investment, and the company becomes very profitable and has spare cash they can't find a productive use for, and give it back to the original investors...
...what do you think the investor is going to do with it?
1) Look for another good investment (something they have a track record for doing)
2) Pile the money up in a big pile and have a bonfire, as they literally have no other ideas for what to do with the money.
3) Something else?
1 is the obvious answer, yet you seem to be the answer must be 2 and can't possibly be 1, but you provide no reason to think so, the linked article provides no reason to think so, and you don't even seem to have realised 1 is a possible outcome.
Further, you seem to be implicitly assuming that a company management who are not professional investors and who don't think they can find a good use for the money will still do a better job of making investments than the firm's investors, who are. Is there a reason for this?
Sure. Do we have any reason to think that's not working? When an investor makes a successful investment, and the company becomes very profitable and has spare cash they can't find a productive use for, and give it back to the original investors...
...what do you think the investor is going to do with it?
1) Look for another good investment (something they have a track record for doing)
2) Pile the money up in a big pile and have a bonfire, as they literally have no other ideas for what to do with the money.
3) Something else?
1 is the obvious answer, yet you seem to be the answer must be 2 and can't possibly be 1, but you provide no reason to think so, the linked article provides no reason to think so, and you don't even seem to have realised 1 is a possible outcome.
Further, you seem to be implicitly assuming that a company management who are not professional investors and who don't think they can find a good use for the money will still do a better job of making investments than the firm's investors, who are. Is there a reason for this?