A third of cash is owned by 5 U.S. companies

[OneCrazyDiamond]

The rising cash holdings of U.S. corporations is increasingly in the hands of a few U.S. companies, with just five tech firms having grabbed a third of it. And nearly three-quarters of cash held by non-financial U.S. companies is stashed overseas, outside the long arm of Uncle Sam.

Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Oracle (ORCL) are sitting on $504 billion, or 30%, of the $1.7 trillion in cash and cash equivalents held by U.S. non-financial companies in 2015, according to an analysis released Friday by ratings agency Moody's Investors Service. That's even more cash concentration than in previous years, as these five companies held 27% of cash in 2014 and 25% in 2013. Apple alone is holding more cash and investments than eight of the 10 entire industry sectors.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2016/05/20/third-cash-owned-5-us-companies/84640704/

[scscholar]

1. Shows the leaders of those companies are incompetent

If they were competent, they could invest that cash and make even more money. Instead, they're holding it in accounts that struggle against losing value against inflation. A good business man makes money with money. They don't stuff it in a mattress.

[newthinking]

2. They may be planning to do just that

This is what happened in the early 2000's . Inflated stock values turned many big corps into mini banks. When the economy here tanked they moved all that cash to places like India and China and built new operations there.

That is one reason why we never completely came back, because a huge amount of capital quietly left the country.

So it could be happening again.