Corporate Cash A Sign Of Failing Economy

     The delusion of an improving economy was given further fuel yesterday with the release of the non-farm payroll number which showed that 175,000 jobs were created in the month of February. The news was reported as being "above analysts estimates," but those estimates were originally for 180,000 jobs added (still pathetic 5 years into a supposed recovery), and over the last two weeks had been lowered to 149,000. In this way, the free-falling economy can hide behind the veil of low expectations.
     Anyone who doubts that the economy is in decline only has to examine the balance sheets of United States corporations. They are burgeoning with over 4 trillion dollars in cash. This record amount of cash on U.S. corporate balance sheets nosed out the previous record attained during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In both instances, the United States had presidents that took the reins of power during an economic downturn, and extended it for the purpose of imposing socialist policies. Franklin Roosevelt once quipped that the more he criticized business, the more votes he got. But FDR was a piker with regards to animus towards U.S. business compared to Barack Obama, as evidenced by corporate America's aversion to putting its cash into the sinking ship that is the Obama economy.
      The Obama administration and others on the Left have demonized corporations for not spending their cash. But corporations are not entities which are sanguine about piles of cash on their balance sheets. They are about making money, and money makes more money when it is in motion, and not when it is statically sitting as cash on a balance sheet. Corporations would rather invest their money in their own businesses and others, if they thought they could make more money. Not doing so shows a lack of confidence in the economy. So it is not greed, as the Left claims, that keeps U.S. companies from spending their cash reserves, but fear.
     The criticism of corporate America for not spending its cash is illustrative of the Left, who create a result by imposing their failed policies and then complain about that very result. The Obama administration has scared corporate America away from spending its cash through mountains of regulations that change on a daily basis, never providing any stability. The administration has also used its Justice Department to intimidate businesses into complying with some twisted notion of "social justice," further adding to fears about investing corporate cash.
     Those in the financial world can delude themselves that the economy is improving by constantly lowering their expectations for it so they are never disappointed. But the piles of cash sitting in the coffers of corporate America tells a very different tale. A tale of business people who are afraid to fully participate in an economy that has become overrun by government bureaucracy and intimidation.