Corporate Cash Holdings Have Grown 59 Percent Since 2008

[cal04]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/11/293999/corporate-cash-59/

The Wall Street Journal noted today that “non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index were holding $1.12 trillion in cash and short-term investments in their most recent reports, up 59% from $703 billion in the third quarter of 2008.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904006104576500690012110476.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

This data seems to fly in the face of conservatives who claim that corporations need more money (in the form of new tax breaks) in order to start hiring. Earlier this month, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) inadvertently made the progressive argument about corporate taxes, when he pointed out that pocketing money from tax savings is simply “what business does.” But maybe the corporations really need cash on hand to purchase necessities since, as Mitt Romney explained today, “corporations are people.”

[dkf]

1. Corporations don't need cash, they need stable policy and sane behavior from congress.

[Cool Logic]

2. That is indeed, true. However, I am not so sure that it is possible.

[WCGreen]

8. How are they going to grow except through expansion and investing

in their company...

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[hack89]

4. The people of America have no claim to that money

unless they are stockholders.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[hack89]

7. Treasury Bonds are government debt

what does that have to do with corporate cash accounts?

Here is the list of banks and financial companies we bailed out. Notice how most have repaid the money?

http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/programs/1-capital-purchase-program

[Name removed]

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[hack89]

10. Wrong - they paid back interest and principle

they paid back everything.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hVDH-K0l9zbGcavAHfSrw1-Pn6og

[Name removed]

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[hack89]

11. Fiat just bought all the government's remaining shares of Chrysler

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43843822/ns/business-autos/t/us-government-ends-chrysler-investment/#.TkR0m4LoaSo

[hack89]

13. GM has also repaid all US government loans

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/04/21/us-usa-autos-idUSTRE63K56920100421

[WCGreen]

12. First of all, corporations at afforded "personship" which means that

the continuity of the corporation is separate from the shareholders. It affords continuity and is a main reason why companies organize themselves as corporations.

Second, the SC ruled that since corporations have personhood, they are able to operate in the marketplace as a distinct entity, separate from the shareholders.

Third, the corporate form of business separates the person who invests in that company from the company itself. The corporation is the entity that is liable, not the person who invested. This has been challenged but the majority of the time, the rulings have come down on the corporate side.

Just a little primer about corporations that will help you better understand what is going on.

Mitt actually was correct and the recent SC decision concerning campaign involvement clarified that legal framework.

I was against the decision because it closed the door to the backroom progressives have been working tirelessly to pry open for more than a century.

[girl gone mad]

5. Yet another reason we need to expand our deficit.

If businesses and individuals all want to net save, the only way to get people back to work is for the government (as the monopoly provider of dollars) to spend. Otherwise, we continue to bleed capacity and innovation.