New York Times (November 26)
“Our president does have trouble hanging onto cash, whether it’s his or ours.” Donald Trump “vowed to eliminate the national debt if elected,” but he “is leaving office in a fiscal year that recorded the biggest one-year debt figure ever, $3.1 trillion. And during the entire glorious four years, the national red ink went from $14.4 trillion to $21.1 trillion.”
Seattle Times (October 27)
“The world’s biggest buyers of commercial jets believe Boeing, which is set to report more heavy financial losses Wednesday, has fallen significantly below parity with rival Airbus — with limited options for recovery as it bleeds cash during the pandemic-driven aviation crisis.”
Tags: Airbus, Aviation, Bleeds, Boeing, Buyers, Cash, Commercial jets, Limited, Losses, Options, Pandemic, Parity, Recovery, Rival
Wall Street Journal (June 22)
“Giant companies from McDonald’s Corp. to Intel Corp. are husbanding cash, cutting costs and tapping debt, all moves that bolster their resilience amid persistent uncertainty wrought by the new coronavirus.” Looking ahead, they are also trying to figure out “when it will make sense to economize less and spend more to avoid losing out to rivals once the recovery begins in earnest.”
Tags: Cash, Coronavirus, Costs, Debt, Economize, Intel, McDonald's, Recovery, Resilience, Rivals, Uncertainty
The Economist (January 25)
Toshiba has threatened “to block the takeover” of Toshiba Machine by Yoshiaki Murakami with a new share issue. This “should alarm anyone who cares about how Japanese firms are run.” Last year, Japanese corporations held cash in excess of ¥446 trillion, “even after they had bought back a record ¥6.5trn in shares the year before.” This “reluctance to part with cash shortchanges investors in Japan by ¥16trn a year.”
Tags: Alarm, Cash, Investors, Japan, Murakami, Share issue, Takeover, Threatened, Toshiba, Toshiba Machine
Wired (August 5)
Despite “growing support from both consumers and retailers to move away from cash in favor of digital payment options,” there are dangers. Roughly a quarter of U.S. consumers have no access or limited access to credit, debit and other cashless options. “Brands need to consider inclusive commerce a core part of their overall customer experience. Cash may no longer be king, but its place in the retail landscape will remain for decades to come.”
CNN (October 8)
“Wall Street’s top activist investors are raising lots of cash and gearing up for battle over the next year…. The group see more opportunity to disrupt the consumer discretionary sector, which includes retailers, than in any other industry.”
Tags: Activist, Cash, Consumer sector, Disrupt, Industry, Investors, Opportunity, Retailers, Wall Street
Hidustan Times (August 30)
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to weed out black money through a ban on high-value currency notes haven’t yielded the desired results.” The Government estimated approximately one-third of the 15.4 trillion rupees in circulation on Nov. 8, 2016 “wouldn’t be returned to banks because it was stashed illegally to avoid tax.” In reality, 99.3% of the invalidated banknotes were returned. Only “107 billion rupees hasn’t yet been received by the Reserve Bank of India after the cash ban.”
Tags: Ban, Banknotes, Black money, Cash, Currency, Desired results, Government, Illegal, India, Modi, Rupee, Stashed, Tax
CBS News (June 5)
Following the close of the Bayer Monsanto merger, a “toxic corporate name” will be retired. Soon after the $60 billion all-cash deal closes on Wednesday, the Monsanto name will be retired. Bayer “wanted the pesticide producer but seemingly not all the associated baggage that comes with the name.” The decision shows “how anti-Monsanto demonstrations over the years have succeeded in molding the public’s view of the company.”
Financial Times (September 7)
Now nearing $500 billion a year, “stock buybacks are big and controversial.” Some claim buybacks are “killing the American economy…. Fine companies, the idea runs, sacrifice their future to satisfy cash-hungry hedge funds.” This is overblown. “Buybacks do not destroy the cash used. The cash goes to stockholders—often pension funds or mutual funds—that reinvest it, presumably in younger firms that are cash-starved and hungry to expand.”
Tags: Cash, Controversial, Economy, Future, Hedge funds, Mutual funds, Pension funds, Reinvest, Stock buybacks, Stockholders
Institutional Investor (September 17)
“As the global recession and financial crisis recede in the rearview mirror, companies have been acting more proactively in using their balance sheets in ways that enhance shareholder value. But we think they can do more…. By mid-2013, U.S. companies were sitting on cash that was equivalent to about 11 percent of their total assets, a three-decade high and earning almost nothing.” Fortunately, there are signs of change. Companies “have become more receptive to using debt to buy back shares, increase dividends and make acquisitions.”
Tags: Acquisitions, Assets, Balance sheets, Buybacks, Cash, Debt, Dividends, Financial Crisis, Recession, Shareholder value, Shares, U.S.
