Imagine the S&P 500 to be one company, that company ceased to grow at the start of 2015 and shrank by nearly a third in the first 3 months of 2016. The dividend payout ratio has climbed from less than 40% in 2011, to over 70% in 2016. 

                This fact finding is signed by Sir Martin Sorrel, the CEO of WPP. 

                He continues by writing that, corporate investment as a proportion of GDP has continued to decline. Businesses are choosing to return funds to shareholders rather than invest back into their operations. 

                And there is no lack of money, as companies have 7 trillion dollars in net cash, worldwide. This psychology, or rather pathology, will continue in 2017. 

                Sir Martin develops this crucial argument in the annual supplement of the The Economist. 

                Investments are cancelled. Companies take actions to improve quarterly earnings at the expense of long term value creation. Sir Martin mentions another very strange fact; the value of global brands during the last 10 years outperformed the S&P 500 index by almost 75%. Martin deplores that situation. He is right. Because, if we apply the same argument to medium sized companies around the world, they do not get the medium, long term money they need for a very simple basic action: invest in their companies, create jobs and give away dividends. 

                And Sir Martin finishes by writing “the first steps towards restoring the animal spirits that have been so conspicuous by their absence in the post Lehman years”, are crucial for the long term health of the global economy. 

                This opinion, coming from Martin Sorrel who looked at the biggest companies in the world through the glasses of advertising and marketing, is very important. I do hope that it will ring the bell of urgency. And push the clock into the other direction: invest medium and long term.