In looking for data this week on how American businesses use their cash, to confirm the observations of a longtime Minneapolis portfolio manager interviewed for an upcoming column, I reviewed the most recent look at cash flow produced by The Georgia Tech – Scheller College of Business.

The authors have a broad enough view to produce a regular report on cash flow that's far more interesting than might be suggested by the title "Cash Flow Trends and Their Fundamental Drivers."

The authors are looking at the cash flow data of 3,000 or so companies that have a market capitalization in excess of $50 million. The focus of their study is "free cash flow," which is the cash profits left over after all obligations have been paid.

It's truly "free," meaning the company can use it to make acquisitions, invest in capital items like new stores or increase the dividends to shareholders.

The most recent report has data back to 2000. While the numbers from quarter to quarter bump around a little, and it's easy to see impact of the Great Recession in several charts, there are long-term trends that are very striking.

One is that cash and short-term investments, usually shorthanded as simply "cash" when investors and columnists write about corporate finance, just continues to steadily mount. The median amount is about $88 million, up from just over $30 million 14 years ago.

What explains that?

Well, one other long-term trend is the shortening of the cash cycle, measured in days. This basically is keeping track of the money tied up in inventory and receivables, after subtracting the bills the company has paid yet. And it's down from over 60 days in 2000 to less than 50 days in 2014.

Another is the decline of capital expenditures, the investments companies make in capital items like buildings or new computer technology. It was around 5 percent of revenue early the last decade, and most recently declined to less than 3.5 percent of revenue.

Capital spending, of course, rolled off the table in the Great Recession and did not recover all the way to prerecession levels, but it had been declining before the start of the last big downturn.

The way to summarize this is that American companies have increasingly figured out how to own fewer assets other than just cash. They might now outsource manufacturing, and thus don't need a big assembly plant. They may drive more sales through e-commerce channels rather than open more physical stores. And they are a lot savvier about limiting inventories.

One way to look at this is that it's great that American companies became more efficient with capital, and they should be able to return more capital to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends.

Then there is a contrary view, that American business managers remain excessively cautious and focused on short-term profitability. They would much rather let cash balances build than invest in new technologies or new physical assets. And this can't be a healthy thing for the economy over the longer term.