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If there is a problem with our economy it is much more likely that it is a case of suboptimal capital investment. It's not like we lack goals and needs. There

If there is a problem with our economy it is much more likely that it is a case of suboptimal capital investment. It's not like we lack goals and needs. There is some hint to this in the ridiculous cash reserves held by some of the big dogs: http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/04/27/194b-apple-cash-pile-hits-record/ http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/04/27/194b-apple-ca... They are probably trying very hard to make good use of that money but it is very likely that them being in charge of all that capital is not the most optimal way to generate growth. Each of them is only specialized in a select few markets so for this capital allocation to be optimal it would mean that there would need to be exponential growth in each single market in which the capital is currently held. That is much harder than having exponential growth overall.

jevgeni 11y ago
It doesn't really matter how specialized they are, if they hold it in cash. And if it is "just" a cash position on their bank accounts, it doesn't mean that said money isn't invested or isn't working. It means that the banks have 194 billion dollars of almost free funding from Apple for their investments.
- pdonis 11y ago
  The banks are still extremely limited in the ways they can utilize that cash. 194 billion dollars held by a handful of banks will be far less optimally used than 194 billion dollars spread among, say, a million individual entrepreneurs.
- ucaetano 11y ago
  That's not cash. From their 10K: Cash and cash equivalents: $14B Short-term marketable securities: $11B Long-term marketable securities: $130B
  - jevgeni 11y ago
    Even better. Most of the so called "cash pile" is hard at work.
    - ucaetano 11y ago
      Exactly, all that cash is hard at work being invested. The structure of the portfolio allocation is also interesting (in rough numbers): 10% cash, 10% short term, 80% long term.

jevgeni 11y ago

It doesn't really matter how specialized they are, if they hold it in cash. And if it is "just" a cash position on their bank accounts, it doesn't mean that said money isn't invested or isn't working. It means that the banks have 194 billion dollars of almost free funding from Apple for their investments.

pdonis 11y ago
The banks are still extremely limited in the ways they can utilize that cash. 194 billion dollars held by a handful of banks will be far less optimally used than 194 billion dollars spread among, say, a million individual entrepreneurs.
ucaetano 11y ago
That's not cash. From their 10K: Cash and cash equivalents: $14B Short-term marketable securities: $11B Long-term marketable securities: $130B
- jevgeni 11y ago
  Even better. Most of the so called "cash pile" is hard at work.
  - ucaetano 11y ago
    Exactly, all that cash is hard at work being invested. The structure of the portfolio allocation is also interesting (in rough numbers): 10% cash, 10% short term, 80% long term.