JP Morgan Chase says it’s going to spend its tax cut savings to

develop hundreds of new branches in the US, increase wages and benefits for hourly US employees, make increased small business and mortgage lending commitments, add 4,000 jobs, and increase philanthropic investments.

Nor is this a one-shot affair.  It’s a five year, $20 billion investment.  So much for pocketing the money and cutting out charity work, the loud Leftist refrain during the debates over tax reform.

As an aside, the pay raises are good and so are the additional jobs implied by the additional branches—400 of them (against an existing 5,130 branches, an 8% bump, which is also good for consumers)—openings.  But frankly, for my money, the additional jobs are more valuable than the pay raises for the existing employees.  The latter are getting a larger piece of the pie, which is good, but the former are getting their first slice—and making the pie itself bigger.

Here’s another datum.  Kim Lopdrup, Red Lobster’s CEO, is saying

Tax cuts, that’s clearly going to be stimulatory for the economy. We think that’s going to be great for the restaurant business[.]

More money left in the coffers of a small-margin business like a restaurant?  Yewbetcha.

Certainly, a couple of data points are little more than anecdotes, not a trend.  But they are promising anecdotes and well worth watching to see whether a trend develops.

This is the sort of thing, though, that the Progressive-Democratic Party opposed when they fought so hard against the just-passed tax reform bill.  It’s almost like they want Americans trapped in the Progressive-Democrat welfare cage.