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

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

[stevie_d_64]

Bingo!!! You have just hit the big enchilada...

The day they get that inacted is the day they come afeter ALL of our personal net worth...

That is the day we will ALL revolt is some way shape or fashion...

And it will not be pretty...

[Starboard]

Sooner or later Obama will try and take these balances for the “greater good.”

---

Yes, let no crisis go to waste. /sarc

The conditions are right for a major power grab. Americans should be very afraid of more central planning by an administration that has no respect for individual freedom. Your point is very well taken.

[taildragger]

will offer this prospective as well. Once we turn some corner...people start feeling really positive....the economy will take off, and we are looking at one of the best economic periods of the past 100 years. The bond rating goes back AAA, and stocks will soar.

Like the day the market hit 777 under Reagan and it was a high volume day as they swapped out into stocks they thought would be the place to be during a recovery. That was the bottom if my memory is correct....

The Palin Power Recovery I can't wait.....

The question is who call's the bottom to get back in? Bob Brinker? Dougie Kass? or ?

[Cheerio]

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

The RATS are just drooling over how they can seize this $2 TRILLION of cash which they want the sheeple to believe is there for the taking. Unlike banana republics this cash belongs to the STOCKHOLDERS and is not there to "HIRE WORKERS" unless there is a NEED for the product or services they are supplying to the marketplace.

Oh I forgot, the RATS and their dependent's do not believe in the free market, much preferring a Commie-like "We'll decide what is produced and distributed to you subjects".

[JPG]

When you don't know what to do and you're facing massive uncertainties like Obamacare taxes, an out of control EPA, NLRB and other busybody's, the best thing to do might be to do nothing but sit tight and see how it all shakes out. You can be sure that Barry and his minions are plotting and devising ways to get their hands on all of that cash.

[SamAdams76]

I have noticed at my own place of employment that people are extremely concerned about losing their job (knowing it will be very difficult to find another one) and as a result, our company has no difficulty getting people to do more and more. Speaking for myself, I do the work that 10 years ago would likely have been done by two or even two and a half people. The manager to employee ratio is also climbing rapidly. Ten years ago, it was unusual (in my company) to directly manage more than 10 people. Now it is not unusual to have 30 or more people directly reporting to a single manager. I directly or indirectly manage so many people now that some of them I don't even recognize when I see them in the hallways.

Profits at my company are higher than they have ever been but very little of that has been transferred to employees. Merit increases have averaged 2% a year for the past several years which hardly keeps up with inflation. Profit sharing plans have been gutted as well. Where the company was satisfied with a 28% profit margin just 5 years ago, having less than a 40% margin in your department these days puts you on the chopping block. For the upcoming fiscal year, my plan is likely to be 48%!

Basically our company is growing not by adding additional employees but by spreading an increasing workload among the employees already on board. I am seeing it adversely affect quality of work and level of customer service and eventually we will hit the point where we just cannot get more efficient without severely compromising the product and services we offer.

I see this in other industries as well. Going out to eat at restaurants, it seems that the restaurant is perpetually understaffed. But what it is is that waitstaff are being asked to wait on more tables than ever before. That is why they are not always so quick to refill your drink or take your order. Increasingly, they are being asked to bus their own tables as well. Eventually, you are going to have them running the dishwasher out back!

[GOPJ]

Companies can't hire workers when they have NO IDEA what's happening with the economy.

Unlike the corrupt dems, companies can't print money and bankrupt citizens. So they have to be careful and realistic.

Unlike dems who use our wealth to buy votes from their pet victim groups...

[RC2]

If you were a CEO of a major corporation and had a lot of cash in the bank, would you trust this president and go out and spend it? I don’t think so. I don’t care if you are a Democrat or Republican, your first duty is to protect your company and that’s what’s happening. Even Democrats are seeing the light.....which is not at the end of the tunnel. They are turning against this president by the hundreds. Even his own people, that are working, are turning against him.

[Steamburg]

I hope they are keeping it out of reach of the Communist Cabal in Washington. It will take lots of cash to restore America once the Communist Parasites are removed. Who would invest in the Communization of this nation?

[Mr. Jeeves]

A lot of that “cash” is short term commercial paper - money borrowed cheap and kept on hand in case it becomes impossible to borrow in the near future. This “cash” cannot be put into business expansion - it’s a reserve to guard against the government’s next unexpected bout of tomfoolery.

[The Theophilus]

Sooner or later Obama will try and take these balances for the “greater good.” It might take the form of a capitol asset tax, an inactive balance tax, or some other scheme

It would have to be under martial law since any law that even breathes an idea like that will cause Category V winds blowing that money out of the US and into anywhere else on the planet.

[Wuli]

If you are a corporate head and considering that your company’s share of that 2trillion cash hoard, if U.S. inflation really takes off, might be worth someone far less in the not too distant future, do you spend it now, or hang on to it?

Maybe in today’s market that amount of cash on hand might be “too much”, but, if inflation takes off maybe you’ll need that extra cushion.

On the other hand, if corporations are not yet scooping up assets and acquisitions with their cash hoard, maybe they think the assets and acquisitions they could consider still look overpriced, and they are expecting deflation to pick up.

If that’s the case, then would they be smart to “buy high”, or to wait.

I think the real answer is neither of those things.

I think the real answer is that their crystal balls have become more cloudy than ever.

They are sitting on all that cash, because so much of the future path of this economy, their share of it, and their cost of participating in it - two years, five years, ten years down the road is more uncertain than it has ever been.

Massive expansion of Federal meddling for one single purpose - just to expand Federal power, not to particularly “solve” anything - has created that uncertainty.

That is why they are sitting on their liquid assets, for now. And I can’t blame them.

[triSranch]

The Beast is being STARVED..Proof of!!!!
I love it when a plan comes together..
And the rest of you sob’s who are after the downfall of the USA...You will fail..We got your name, number, AND address, ect.
The whole (red) country is fixing (that’s Southern for ..to start..) to come after you traitors tooth and toe nail and set things right again.
The traitors have failed. Their actions are going in the ditch. They have no where to go now but down..

Don’t forget those near you who were and are traitors..
NEVER FORGET WHO THEY WERE. Tell your children, point them out in a crowd. Talk about them and call their names out loud.
wa-ha- ha - hahahah hahahahahahah..I LOVE IT..

[OrangeHoof]

I got laid off from a large corporation last December. I was hired in April by a 1000-employee company owned by one of America’s largest banks. That company got sold in June and the new company is shutting down it down when the sale is completed. I’ve already been hired by another company when this job ends.

Each time, I’ve had to give up some things I would have liked in order to still have a job, but it’s a lie to say that employers are not hiring. What’s more likely true is that they are holding back on jobs that aren’t essential while they want out the Obamanation.

And who can blame them. The Democrats’ idea on how to create more jobs is to raise taxes and to nag employers while burdening them with new mandates and regulations. Who wants to go off on a hiring spree under those conditions?

I have confidence America can bounce back once we throw the communists out of office - if America will ever get the nerve and the vision to do so and are willing to endure the browbeating of a far-left media.

[asinclair]

And the comments of people with a liberal/progressive persuasion just further show that "save for a rainy day" means nothing to them. The job of the competent business leader is to ensure that the company money they spend furthers the interests of the company; or, put another way, that ideally one dollar spend makes two dollars in income. The top 20 companies in the list are successful companies -- and they are successful because they show a profit, not a loss.

Can't guarantee a return on investment? Don't make the investment, says the competent business leader. The money you don't spend today can be money much better spend tomorrow, when the situation changes.

I believe the growth of cash positions say more about the President's regulatory policies than anything that comes out of his mouth. Businesses are voting by where they put their money.

(N.B.: how much is Hollywood investing in new, original movies right now? What I've seen in passing suggests that our studios are green-lighting more remakes, sequels, prequels, and derivatives than original idea. Could Star Wars be made in the current environment? Titanic?)

How many of those liberal/progressives work for companies that have sound fiscal practices? Why don't they quit their current jobs with "the bad guys" and go to work for companies closer to their social ideals? Companies that spend more than they take in, without end, should be hiring like mad, right?

[Truth29]

"It would have to be under martial law since any law that even breathes an idea like that will cause Category V winds blowing that money out of the US and into anywhere else on the planet."

The grab could be accompanied by some form of a punitive transfer or severance tax that would make it prohibitive to transfer funds out of the country. Companies would be wise to be moving balances now to get them out of Obama's reach.

[GOPJ]

Basically our company is growing not by adding additional employees but by spreading an increasing workload among the employees already on board. I am seeing it adversely affect quality of work and level of customer service and eventually we will hit the point where we just cannot get more efficient without severely compromising the product and services we offer.

At which point some companies job out the work to people in 3rd world counties...

We had such a wonderful country - and workplaces we were loyal to... Within the span of our lifetimes, Sam - saw it all fall apart. What were the incentives that destroyed? Can they be reversed?

[Venturer]

GE the Company that Obama’s Jobs Czar works for isn’t sitting on their money, they are sending it to China in the form of jobs.

Obama sure picked the right guy to be American jobs Czar./s/

[catnipman]

Michael Moore says that this money is a natural resource that belongs to all of us and that it should be “harvested” by the U.S. government and used for “the better good”.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/