Where Did All The Inventory Go?

The recession has had an impact on almost everyone and every business including the supply chain.
When the credit crunch came and CFO’s of leading manufactures looked to tighten their belt, they looked at all the capital tied up in inventory and put directives out to supply chain managers to reduce those inventories and find a way to do business in the future with less. I believe today with the excellent tools available for demand planning and forecasting as well as more everyday low cost pricing rather than promotion build ups and forward buys has change the way inventory flows through the supply chain.
Companies are looking at the inventory levels necessary to meet the customer demands and are not building any surplus or fluff.
Inventory certainly moves faster in today’s supply chain but the question I am wondering is when the economy picks up, will we see a spike in inventory and will it be more to the levels of the past?