Over the past few decades, we have seen technology advance rapidly, and businesses have purchased a large amount of high-tech equipment. More recently, the growth rate of business spending on computers has slowed - from about 40 percent last year to less than half that pace, on average, in the first two quarters of this year.
Asset purchases flatten the yield curve and reduce the returns on maturity transformation; and the negative interest rate policy de facto flattens the curve further, since the zero lower bound that banks typically apply on deposits means that a large share of bank liabilities no longer reprice when market rates fall. Bank lending rates however typically do, compressing loan-deposit margins.