America’s largest corporations are holding lots of cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments. This viz breaks it down for 2012, 2006, and 2000.
There has been a lot of reporting in recent weeks about how big banks have fallen on hard times. One would be forgiven for getting the impression that these banks are not doing much better than barely scraping by. But the data tell another story. In 2011, for example, the profits of Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo each exceeded the profits of Google. The average profit from 2005 to 2011 for Apple was less than that for Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.
Faced with evidence of the ineffectiveness of its foreclosure prevention efforts, the Administration shrugs its shoulders and says it has "limited levers." The limitations are not a necessary fact of life, but a function of the view that forcing financial institutions to modify mortgages would be an affront to the dignity and sovereignty of banks.
Did you miss this? Republicans say they’re trying to stop the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from doing anything to jeopardize financial safety-and-soundness. Consumer advocates say that’s code language for the fear of something new in the financial world: independent oversight.