WSJ.com - October 22, 2004
THE MACRO INVESTOR By STEVE LIESMAN
Corporate Cash Hordes Might Mean Capitalism Is Fresh Out of Ideas
Is capitalism running out of ideas?
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To Mr. Artus, the cash accumulation suggests that companies lack profitable investment ideas. Even more, it suggests that at least in certain industries, there is a lack of competition.
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With few exceptions, I'm witnessing - at the firms where I consult - an intriguing timidity when it comes to expansion, to actually applying the horde of accumulated capital to "growth" directed projects.
Hand in glove with this is an inward-facing whirl of activity: a tornado of corporate edicts, policies, procedures, checks and double checks which make the workday for millions similar to being tossed on the wind and rudely rocketed to the ground when the ride's done.
This is what stagnation, hidden by an immense, twirling cloud of dust, looks like amongst the top tier of businesses - at least from where I watch.
The goal of all this activity, everyone's told, is to find cost savings in every nano-sized space so profit margins can be maintained or enhanced. Of course, profits can also be enhanced by developing new products/services and/or putting a new spin on existing ones. But this isn't an option for all segments of Capital.
I'm reasonably sure none of this is startlingly new or particularly significant though I may be wrong; perhaps I'm not seeing deeply enough.
In any event, the sense of there-is-no-future-only-more-of-this wheel-spinning is quite real amongst the people I speak with - at both the "senior" managerial and rank and file level.
Meanwhile, in the UK, workers drink to forget...
from -
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/22/brit_workers_drunk/ >
Three-quarters of Brit workers drunk after lunch
By Startups.co.uk (press.releases at theregister.co.uk) Published Friday 22nd October 2004 14:18 GMT
An alarming 76 per cent of employees are coming back to work drunk after taking a "liquid lunch", according to a new survey carried out by Peninsula employment law constancy. The results show that an increasing number of employees are consuming alcohol during their lunch break - a trend that could harm the reputation and productivity of a business.
Out of the 1342 employees polled, 68 per cent said they enjoyed alcoholic beverages during lunch, the same percentage of those polled who said they found it hard to relax after their break unless they'd had a tipple.
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