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Responsibility:
 Tom Sgouros
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Tue, 04 Mar 2008
This isn't good
Via here,
I read that US corporations are apparently flush with cash. From the
New York Times:
The increase over the last decade in the amount of cash, as a percent
of total assets, for the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock
index has been steep....According to S.& P., the total cash held by
companies in its industrial index exceeded $600 billion in February,
up from about $203 billion in 1998.
This is not at all surprising. As was noted last year in RIPR 25, declining investment opportunities
may have already become the most significant untold economic story of
the 21st century. During the Depression, economists clearly saw that
this was a problem to be addressed, and academic disputes raged about
why opportunities were in decline. (Joseph Schumpeter and
Alvin Hansen representing two of the important antagonists.) But
after WWII, there was plenty to invest in, and the topic faded from
importance.
But just because a topic isn't trendy doesn't mean that it isn't
relevant, and that appears to be what's happening here. Ask yourself:
if $40,000 dropped in your lap tomorrow, what productive investment
would you make with it? Can't think of anything? You're not alone,
and that's a problem.
09:57 - 04 Mar 2008 [/y8/ma]
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