A second factor that complicates the outlook for investment is the state of the computer sector. About 12 percent of business spending on equipment and software is for computer gear. Some of that spending is to equip new plants and new employees, but a large share of it is to replace old machines and outdated technology.
If monetary and fiscal policies became distracted from their medium-term objectives they would themselves become a source of volatility and would thereby destabilise, rather  4  BIS Review 142/2008  than stabilise, financial markets. Stability orientation of macroeconomic policies is as crucial today as it was sixty years ago when Walter Eucken worked on his landmark study. So much for macroeconomic policies.