Companies Keep Tight Grip on Cash - WSJ.com

Scylla and Charybdis: Companies Keep Tight Grip on Cash - WSJ.com

All of this reminds me of a recent reading of how the original Cornelius Vanderbilt held onto cash through the 19th century with all of its financial upheavals. It let him take advantage of the over-leveraging of others.

One can't help but be concerned when governments in Europe and the US have promised benefits they can't afford and feel as though taxing business and investors won't really impact job growth.

It's like Mark Twain said, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

And here we have Republicans supporting a tax bill that makes no sense (e.g. who does investment planning with a 2-year time horizon, knowing tax rates could explode after 2 years, along with vastly higher interest rates) and Democrats thinking that more taxes on upper earners will support job creation. These people are all ignoring the basic recommendations of the recent Deficit Reduction Committee - and, here today, we find them restoring what are unequivocally 'earmarks' such as the ethanol subsidy.

These politicians don't get it. Luckily some corporate leaders are smart enough to see the snake pit that is the economy of either the Dems or Republicans - sort of like Scylla and Charybdis.