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> No, I said nothing of the sort. I said they should have been putting money aside during the good years so they can weather the bad years. Most companies woul

> No, I said nothing of the sort. I said they should have been putting money aside during the good years so they can weather the bad years. Most companies would be correctly criticized for hoarding cash. Companies can also be sued for keeping too much cash on hand, as for example, is the case with apple.

thephyber 7y ago
FYI the Apple parent company had a massive balance sheet but issued debt against it. The subsidiaries in Europe and/or the Caribbean held that cash so as not to “re-patriate” it which would incur the US tax rate. In practical terms, they didn’t hoard much and what they did was invested in financial instruments, so it was still increasing money velocity in the economy.
- beatgammit 7y ago
  > invested in financial instruments Which is what most people mean when they say "cash" in the context of company financials. As long as it's reasonably liquid, I consider it "cash". Investing in the company, on the other hand, is not liquid (e.g. hiring, buying planes, etc).
magduf 7y ago
>Companies can also be sued for keeping too much cash on hand, as for example, is the case with apple. Sounds like there should be a new law to prevent this kind of thing. As the other poster pointed out, Japanese companies that have been around for eons don't seem to have this problem, so it's quite likely they keep lots of cash in savings to weather major downturns in business.
- tathougies 7y ago
  > Sounds like there should be a new law to prevent this kind of thing. As the other poster pointed out, Japanese companies that have been around for eons don't seem to have this problem, so it's quite likely they keep lots of cash in savings to weather major downturns in business. Japanese companies that have lasted a long time are family companies that don't have obligations to the public. The government mandates that public company boards act in best interest of the public shareholders, which means distributing their profits or using them to make money.

thephyber 7y ago

FYI the Apple parent company had a massive balance sheet but issued debt against it. The subsidiaries in Europe and/or the Caribbean held that cash so as not to “re-patriate” it which would incur the US tax rate. In practical terms, they didn’t hoard much and what they did was invested in financial instruments, so it was still increasing money velocity in the economy.

beatgammit 7y ago
> invested in financial instruments Which is what most people mean when they say "cash" in the context of company financials. As long as it's reasonably liquid, I consider it "cash". Investing in the company, on the other hand, is not liquid (e.g. hiring, buying planes, etc).

magduf 7y ago

>Companies can also be sued for keeping too much cash on hand, as for example, is the case with apple. Sounds like there should be a new law to prevent this kind of thing. As the other poster pointed out, Japanese companies that have been around for eons don't seem to have this problem, so it's quite likely they keep lots of cash in savings to weather major downturns in business.

tathougies 7y ago
> Sounds like there should be a new law to prevent this kind of thing. As the other poster pointed out, Japanese companies that have been around for eons don't seem to have this problem, so it's quite likely they keep lots of cash in savings to weather major downturns in business. Japanese companies that have lasted a long time are family companies that don't have obligations to the public. The government mandates that public company boards act in best interest of the public shareholders, which means distributing their profits or using them to make money.