http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aE6W8c9z9Bms&pos=5Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- A majority of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index increased cash to a combined $1.19 trillion while simultaneously reducing spending, keeping a jobs recovery on hold.
Investment and hiring may remain low as companies bring unused capacity back on line and rely on productivity gains to fill demand, said Edward Lazear, former economic adviser to President George W. Bush and a professor at Stanford University in Stanford, California. Employers have eliminated 8.4 million jobs since the U.S. slipped into recession in December 2007.
Walgreen’s cash more than tripled to $3.15 billion at the end of November from a year earlier. Miquelon said that has bolstered the Deerfield, Illinois-based company’s balance sheet in a strategy that has “suited us very, very well.”
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Translation: As long as Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and the boys in CONgress play nice.. we will continue to stuff cash in our pockets. We will continue to offshore jobs, sell shitty cheap products to America and work our remaining employees like rented mules until they drop.