The last time we looked at global corporate cash flow and capex as a percentage of G4 (US, UK, Europe and Japan) things were bad [5]. Two quarters later, things have gotten much worse, with that purest proxy of true growth, or lack thereof, corporate cash flow (and not fudged, adjusted, normalized, pro forma earnings), sliding yet again tracking the ongoing collapse in capex, and now down to levels last seen during 2009, and what's worse going further back, all the way back to 2003 levels. In other words, even when taking into account the tens of trillions of liquidity injections by global central banks to prop up capital markets, the flow through to actual corporate cash flow has been non-existent, and the entire past decade is now a scratch despite the global asset price bubble rising to unprecedented new heights.
As for global CapEx which may (or may not) have bottomed at a % of GDP level not seen since 2002-2004, who needs organic growth when you have stock buybacks and dividends?
[6]
And just like last time, as we explained in early 2012, it is still the Fed's fault [7].