All across the world companies have in recent years been hoarding cash, nowhere more so than in the US. For at least a decade and a half, cash has progressively increased its share of the American corporate balance sheet, to the point where US quoted companies have turned into the Scrooges of the global economy. According to research by Juan Sánchez and Emircan Yurdagul of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, their cash hoard had reached almost $5tn by the end of 2011.
近年來,世界各地的企業都在囤積現金,其中尤以美國企業爲甚。至少從15年前起,美國企業資產負債表上的現金比例就開始逐漸上升,以至於美國上市公司成了全球經濟中的守財奴。根據美國聖路易聯邦儲備銀行(Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis)的胡安•桑切斯(Juan Sánchez)和米爾詹•尤爾達居爾(Emircan Yurdagul)的調查研究,到2011年底爲止,這些公司囤積了將近5兆美元的現金。