SOX doesn't explain the macroeconomic picture, though. Recall the high unemployment rate; the government has dumped money into several tried-and-true methods t

SOX doesn't explain the macroeconomic picture, though. Recall the high unemployment rate; the government has dumped money into several tried-and-true methods to stimulate growth and bring back jobs, but whatever growth we've seen in the last few quarters hasn't translated into expansion of operations. We can infer from this picture that companies are sitting on their money and spending frugally. They did so in the early 2000s as well. SOX explains why it's hard for a small-to-mid-cap to break out, but it doesn't explain why existing big businesses would restrict their spending. My conjecture, which I don't have a watertight case for, is that business(as a whole) doesn't want to grow, or can increasingly meet growth targets via productivity alone, and so the whole rationale driving IPOs - and the capital/labor side of the economy - is broken.