Hoarding cash: US firms sitting on $2T on balance sheets

NY Post ^ | August 6, 2011 | JOHN AIDAN BYRNE

[lowbridge]

Either way, with unemployment at 9.1 percent, the top corporations are not using it to hire workers or expand benefits.

American corporations are in a sweet spot, according to some. They have a motivated work force , and with muted demand, no need to expand and hire more workers.

The sums at stake have triggered alarms.

"Companies should be using the cash to either invest in new products to allow them to grow, or to make acquisitions if they are not good at research and development," said Peter Cohan, a management consultant and venture capitalist. "Alternatively, they should use the cash to pay back shareholders in dividends."

That big, liquid pile is accumulating at a record pace: ten consecutive quarters of growing cash on the corporate sidelines, according to Standard & Poor's. That's despite America's jobs crisis and a faltering economy.

[lentulusgracchus]

The reports all claim this is sooo much money, but the government pisses away a trillion dollars a quarter with no benefit to society to show for it.

I read just yesterday that the Government blew a quarter-trillion in just one day, once the debt ceiling was raised. The Congress raised it $900 billion, and Geithner went through a quarter of it in a single day.

[Mike Darancette]

Hell they’d really like to get our retirement money since it is tax deferred the government thinks they have a claim.

[SamAdams76]

I think the labor unions in this country did a lot of irreparable damage to employer/employee relations. By artificially inflating wages while simultaneously limiting the amount of work that workers could be asked to do, many employers started outsourcing to areas that did not have labor unions to contend with. This opened a Pandora's box that could not be closed again, as employers realized how much cheaper they could obtain labor elsewhere. Even non-unionized companies began exploiting cheap labor and soon it became difficult for other companies to compete unless they did the same. Add to that an ever more intrusive government (taxes and regulations) and a tort system out of control that forces companies to spend more and more on lawyers to defend themselves against frivolous lawsuits and you have a toxic brew that is making it very difficult to do business in the United States.

[American in Israel]

Within the span of our lifetimes, Sam - saw it all fall apart. What were the incentives that destroyed? Can they be reversed?

When we turned from "In God we Trust" to in man we trust, it all went to fertilizer. It turns out that America's greatness was God's Blessing. When we figure that out, and turn once more back to God, it will turn around again. But not one minute before that.

[American in Israel]

Within the span of our lifetimes, Sam - saw it all fall apart. What were the incentives that destroyed? Can they be reversed?

When we turned from "In God we Trust" to in man we trust, it all went to fertilizer. It turns out that America's greatness was God's Blessing. When we figure that out, and turn once more back to God, it will turn around again. But not one minute before that.

[stevie_d_64]

We are getting really, really close LG...

[lentulusgracchus]

We are getting really, really close LG...

Yeah, and I know I blew a good chance to go shopping in La Grange for MRE's this weekend (that warehouse place you guys have discussed on the Texas board) ..... I got distracted by other issues (gunsmith put me off again, he was moving his store, shotgun conversion will have to wait a week) and burned Saturday afternoon.

Today will be ..... interesting. I think the Fed will intervene and they'll throw the collars on if it gets rough; they'll try to engineer a countertrend rally day with Ben's helicopter money otherwise.

Meanwhile, where is that survivalist warehouse, the one with the assorted deathless mummyrats, dosimeters and KI tabs?

Meanwhile, hmmm, I'm wondering if I should "repatriate" some cash and coinsilver from cold storage.

[stevie_d_64]

Good thinkun’!!!