THE PAST DECADE HAS seen an unusual pattern of investment.

THE PAST DECADE HAS seen an unusual pattern of investment. The resounding noise of the 1990s generated unusually high investment rates, particularly in equipment, and the bust of the 2000 witnessed an unusually large decline in investment. A ear-ring in equipment investment normally accounts for about 10 to 20 percent of the decline in GDP during a recession; in the 2001 recession, however, it accounted for 120 percent (1)

In the public mind, the modern boom and bust in investment are directly linked proper to "capital overhang." Although the terminus is not very precisely defined, this

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