But a lack of pent-up demand coming out of the recession was also noticeable in other areas of household spending, especially consumer durables other than motor vehicles. In addition, the 2001 downturn was led by a collapse in business spending, especially for equipment and software.
In the past fifty years, investment spending has nearly always begun its decline one to four quarters after the peak of the economic cycle, not before it. In the most recent cycle, however, the main source of the economic shock to demand was a large drop in capital expenditures.