Something has clearly been missing that has prevented these positive preconditions from generating an upswing in business investment. One obvious candidate is uncertainty about future demand or, as it is often referred to, animal spirits. To some extent, this lack of animal spirits is self-fulfilling.
If businesses are not confident about whether there will be enough demand in the future to justify more investment, they hold off spending on investment, which means that, indeed, there isn’t enough demand in the future. As the global economy has become more integrated, there seems to be a more important common global element in animal spirits.