Businesses are riding high with record corporate profits as a share of the economy and soaring stock prices. Many businesses are currently facing lower average tariff rates than they did last year and look forward to $166 billion in tariff refunds to support their bottom lines, bolstering their ability to reinvest. We saw the result in the Q1 GDP report. Equipment and intellectual property investment soared 17.2% and 13.0% annualized in the first three months of the year. Gross private investment added a whopping 1.5 ppts of the 2.0% a.r. GDP growth—that share has been rising for three consecutive quarters even as ... (full story)