Was I a little hard on CEOs a few weeks ago? I accused them of a colossal failure of imagination and will for investing so little while sitting on record high heaps of cash. (That sum is even higher now, according to new Fed data.) I got some pushback. It's not a CEO's fault if demand is spotty and flaccid, a friend told me, which is fair enough as far as it goes-and doesn't go far enough. There's a whole wide world of demand out there. If you don't believe it, check out the U.S. auto industry.

Yes, the U.S. auto industry. Recent stats show U.S. exports are up and that autos are among the big gainers. In the last couple of months, GM raised over $20 billion with the largest initial public offering in U.S. history and appears to be on track to record its first full-year profit since 2004; the company also announced that it's hiring 1000 researchers and engineers over the next two years to build its electric-vehicle capability. Ford is hiring 1,800 workers and rebuilding its Louisville plant to build new versions of the Ford Escape, which is nipping at Honda's heels in the small SUV category. To be sure, to get here the industry has gone through more pain than even the Marquis de Sade would inflict. A whole lot of capacity has been boarded up; thousands upon thousands have been laid off. The city of Detroit is making cruel choices about how to restructure to fit its new, unwanted small size. And though Chrysler's hiring, too, Fiat hero Sergio Marchionne has yet to work his magic there. Anyone looking for half-empty glasses can find them.