Corporate Cash and what they are doing with it now ...

[Pepperbelly]

Interesting article from Reuters, linked below, notes that Standard and Poor 500 companies are sitting on better than $600 billion in cash at the moment. They are investing little. Outside of paying some dividends to their investors, one of the big things, besides holding on the the long green, is to buy back stock.

And that got me thinking ... what is the practical effect of stock uy-backs? Do the current stockholders (the owners) benefit or does benefit accrue to the Board of Directors in some fashion. What is the effect of this?

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=7743119

[NMDemDist2]

1. those with large cash reserves can scoop up bargins when the

market crashes and burns

but I really don't know the actual answer......