Wall Street Journal (12/01/15) Eric Morath

Companies seem to be hesitant to increase spending on machines, computers, and new buildings, among other things, with the U.S. Department of Commerce reporting that the broadest measure of U.S. business investment showed one of the worst performances of the six-year-old economic expansion. Meanwhile, government estimates show that a gauge of capital expenditures fell 3.8% during the first 10 months of the year from the same period in 2014.

Weak investment puts a damper on economic output and the economy’s future potential, as capital expenditures are key to improving employee productivity and eventually increasing profits and wages.