American corporations are sitting on record amounts of cash, but that doesn't mean their greenbacks are safely tucked away at a bank down the block from headquarters. To the contrary, billions of dollars worth of corporate cash and short-term securities sit in foreign subsidiaries located in undisclosed countries. A lot of this money might not even be in dollars.
In a serene world with healthy financial markets, the whereabouts of all this cash might give few people pause. But Europe's sovereign-debt woes alone, not to mention worries about the solvency of the continent's large banks, ought to beg the question: How safe is that money?
We're not talking small change here. Cash and short-term investments of non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 topped $1.1 trillion as of the end of the year's third quarter, according to Capital IQ. That's up 70% from 2007 and roughly 200% in the past 10 years. Companies have boosted their cash positions amid uncertainty about the economy and the availability of financing through banks and the capital markets. "Since the financial crisis, companies have built up cash to hold larger liquidity buffers," says Ron Chakravarti, a managing director and head of Global Solutions, Liquidity and Investments, at Citigroup.
http://online.barrons.com/article/S...712227921128.html#articleTabs_panel_article=1
How about repatriating this cash and generate jobs in the US of A? Ask your local politician....
