That record pile of idle corporate cash turns out to be much smaller than previously believed. Half a trillion dollars smaller.

One of the enduring frustrations of the U.S. economic recovery has been companies’ tendency to hoard cash rather than using it to hire or invest. The issue has become a political football, with Democrats criticizing companies for not spending and Republicans saying excessive regulation was deterring corporate investment.

But in its quarterly “flow of funds” report on Thursday, the Federal Reserve sharply revised its estimates of how much cash companies are holding on their balance sheets. The bottom line: Corporations have nearly $500 billion less cash on hand than previously believed.

To be sure, companies are still holding onto an unprecedented amount of cash. As of the end of March, nonfinancial corporations had $1.74 trillion in liquid assets on their balance sheets, $12.6 billion more than at the end of the year. A decade ago they had barely $1 trillion on hand.