Cash Piles Up as U.S. CEOs Play Safe With Slow-Growth Economy

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/cash-piles-up-as-u-s-ceos-play-safe-with-slow-growth-economy.html


The cash is piling up at home in part as companies such as General Electric Co. and chemical maker PPG Industries Inc. sell assets and Caterpillar Inc. cuts capital spending. Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric Co.




Any lament that U.S. executives are sitting on a record $1.73 trillion at their companies instead of investing in plants and equipment may be about to get louder.

The buildup of cash and marketable securities accelerated in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis after slowing in early 2012. At the same time, capital spending in the most recent quarter rose by the least since March 2010, when the U.S. was still emerging from a financial crisis.

The trends, based on data from about 2,300 U.S. companies compiled by Bloomberg, suggest executives’ lack of need or confidence to invest deepened with threats of federal spending cuts and the economic slowdowns at home, in Europe and China. Without a pickup in spending, the U.S. economy loses a driver of job creation and risks staying locked in below-average growth, giving even more cause to hold tight.

“What concerns me is that companies have all of this excess cash and they are not deploying it into their long-term operations,” said Nick Raich, chief executive officer of the Earnings Scout, an independent economic research firm based in Cleveland. “Public outcry will erupt if companies do not spend and create jobs.”

[ananda]

1. There is actually plenty of money and potential for job creation!

The sociopathic corporate and one percenters just choose to loot and hoard instead of share and grow the economy.

[badtoworse]

2. Investing is not done on the basis of social need and whining about it isn't going to change a thing

Investing is a business decision and the US is not that attractive as a place for investment. We need to fix that.

[reformist2]

3. It's playing out just like a game of Monopoly at the end.

One person raking in all the cash, everyone else limping around the board hoping to land on free parking to win the free pile of cash in the middle!

[magellan]

4. They won't spend and create jobs if there's no demand for their products

And there won't be demand for their products until people are paid more than a pittance for their hard work. These jackasses cut their own throats and ours along with it.

[onehandle]

5. Corporate cash hoarding is a threat on our freedoms.

If they don't spend that money to create jobs and accelerate the economy, Al Queda will take over and institute sharia law.

[Brigid]

6. Behold the almighty "job creators."

[xchrom]

7. indeed.nt

[mick063]

8. Their greed has defeated their political defense

They have debunked supply side economics without any outside help. Greed so overwhelmingly strong, they can't even sustain a semblence of the lie known as trickle down theory.

[HughBeaumont]

9. Fuckitalism: Guaranteeing It's Extinction One Idiotic Maneuver at a Time.