
Apple’s Cash Hoard Exceeds GDP of 126 Countries - digiwizard
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apples_cash_hoard_exceeds_gdp_of_126_countries/
======
rglover
I'm not sure if this is still true, but I recall reading something about Apple
not participating in any philanthropic ventures? With so much money (and aside
from the point that they invest a lot in their products), it's a wonder why
they don't work on innovating products to help struggling nations. Granted,
there's no rule that says a company needs to do these sorts of things, but I
think it would be a cool move.

~~~
duopixel
I've had very bad experiences with these types of organizations. I once
visited an institute for blind people and I had the chance to see them using
the computer lab. I was moved by the scene: all these eager young people
hungry for learning, and yet they didn't have internet. Their Braille library
was 20 books.

So I made a huge effort and found someone who could donate a router, took $500
in savings (which, as a student in Mexico, was quite a sum) and asked friend
to match my donation. So my donation was in essence two years of internet.

Some time went by and when I followed up, the router was stowed in a closet
and my donation had gone to "administrative purposes" because they were having
trouble making ends meet.

This is a huge problem in charitable organizations, most of the money doesn't
go to the people who need it, it goes towards maintaining the organization and
generating more money through bothersome print and phone campaigns.

I've met a couple of people who have worked in these organizations, and they
become jaded once they catch the mechanics. There are certainly exceptions:
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the Turner Foundation function on
the funds provided by their founders.

I still believe in charity, but in a more peer-to-peer fashion, not
necessarily involving money but mentoring that builds long-standing roads to
success.

~~~
sek
I had similar experiences, the administration on charity organizations are
often less efficient than government institutions. I was at the Red Cross in
Germany and at 14 o'clock nobody was at work anymore. They were out because
the weather was so nice told me the apprentice browsing on Facebook, there was
nobody else there and she couldn't help me with my problem.

This makes me angry, there is no competition in this area so nobody controls
if their administration is efficient. All this money is gone for the people
who really need it.

~~~
divtxt
There is competition - they're competing with other charities for funds.

------
joejohnson
This kind of comparison is ridiculous. Gross domestic product (GDP) refers to
the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in
a given period. [Wikipedia] It would have units of [money]/[time]. Apple's
cash hoard is just a lump sum reserve; it has units of [money]. To compare the
two is meaningless.

A similarly meaningless comparison would be between distance and speed or
countless others. Simple dimensional analysis shows how inane this whole
comparison is.

~~~
harryh
It is not a meaningless comparison. It means that Apple could (theoretically)
buy the entire output of any one of these countries for an entire year.

How much that matters is certainly unclear, but it's interesting to think
about for sure.

------
robin_reala
Let’s compare Apple’s cash hoard against countries’ cash hoards rather than
their GDP. Assuming the source data at:

[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/...](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html)

is correct then Apple slots in at position #4 (!), slightly ahead of Russia
and quite a bit behind Germany.

~~~
barrkel
That's current accounts for the country (i.e. inflows less outflows), not
"cash hoards". There's no easy way to measure a country's "cash hoard", as it
were. GDP goes up with the number of transactions, even if there is no value
added in each transaction. Money is just a way of making value liquid,
fungible and transferrable etc.; the amount of it specifically is relatively
meaningless, as banks etc. can multiply it based on reserve ratios.

~~~
mistermann
I think every country in the world has a negative cash hoard, except perhaps
Norway?

~~~
bretpiatt
The amount of cash in your bank account has nothing to do with the amount of
debt you have. In many cases the more debt you have the more cash you have
because when you raise that debt through a bond issuance corporations receive
the cash before spending it. It isn't like it is in the consumer world where
you typically only acquire debt as loan for an asset (car, home, etc).

~~~
mistermann
I was talking net.

------
aj700
This may seem an unfair and ridiculously large amount of money to hoard, but
there's one reason it isn't. When Bush came in his admin just took Microsoft
off the hook. The US is so capitalist that it's quite happy for monopolies to
subvert the whole point of capitalism - competition. So Apple, and every
company, including Microsoft, must hoard as much paranoia money as it can,
because the US government's willingness to be corrupted is obvious to
everyone, especially if you're Apple, or say, Netscape. They got away with
destroying it, didn't they. They wish we were _all_ still using IE6. When the
government is on the side of your competition, no amount will make you safe.
They will crush you, while paying their friends soft money to look the other
way.

------
nhebb
Two great examples of where graphs fail compared to a simple table of data.

------
kahawe
A fascinating thing here is that despite all of Apple's current products, all
the rising sales numbers, all the hype, popularity and air of coolness
surrounding them and all the generally good news about them and all that... up
to the launch of Lion, the share price has hardly moved and if anything it
went down - just because Steve Jobs announced he would retire.

~~~
riobard
'cause the popular belief is that once Jobs retires, Apple will enjoy a free
fall in _everything_.

Fascinating.

~~~
kahawe
I understand this bit very well, thankyouverymuch. What I find fascinating is
how one-dimensional and downright stupid and emotion-filled the stock market
actually is and the Apple stocks are one of many good examples for that in
this case.

~~~
3pt14159
When saw that Quora question on "why is Apple's stock so low" and didn't agree
with a single one of the answers I moved half my parents investments into
Apple. It is crazy to think that he hasn't imbued them with a lasting sense of
design. I still think the company is undervalued.

~~~
BrandonDC
That sounds like a terribly risky move for any investor, much less folks who
are probably in or nearing retirement. Diversify!

~~~
3pt14159
I bought put options to cover the (extreme) downside. We were up about 30%
YoY, so I wasn't too concerned.

------
4J7z0Fgt63dTZbs
I wonder how "world's top 100 wealthiest entities" comes out as.

