[Marxism] Corporate Cash and Foreign Reserves

[S. Artesian]

Couple of days ago, I posted a clip from the WSJ.com about Cisco's cash 
holdings overseas and asked if anyone knew how to get some sort of grasp of 
the aggregate amount.  I directed the same inquiry to the US Bureau of 
Economic Analysis today and got this answer back within 3 hours [ the US BEA 
people and the EIA people are incredibly responsive-- call them on the phone 
and they are positively elated to talk to you and answer your questions]. 
Well, I plan to do a little mining here and see how much of those foreign 
reserves held by central banks in China, Russia, Brazil etc. might actually 
be based on US cash reserves held abroad:

Dear Mr. Schanoes:
 The short answer to your question as it concerns any specific U.S. company 
is no.  U.S. law forbids the disclosure of any data collected by BEA on 
individual companies.  However, in the aggregate, data are reported on all 
U.S. residents' claims on foreigners in the form of depository receipts and 
other types of assets.  Please see  Table 9a. Claims on and Liabilities to 
Unaffiliated Foreigners Reported by U.S. Nonbanking Concerns Except 
Securities Brokers and Table 10a. Claims on Foreigners Reported by U.S. 
Banks and Securities Brokers .  These tables are on the BEA website under 
the subheading International, Balance of Payments, Interactive tables: 
Detailed Estimates.
 If a foreign affiliate of a U.S. company deposited cash in a foreign bank 
account, this is not considered as a claim on a foreigner by a U.S. resident 
and that transaction would not be included in the U.S. Balance of Payments. 
The cash asset would be included in the balance sheet of the foreign 
affiliate, and total assets of foreign affiliates by industry by country are 
also available on the BEA website under Operations of Multinational 
Companies, Financial and Operating Data, Interactive Tables.
 Thank you for your inquiry.
Sincerely,
 John Rutter


Balance of Payments Division
Bureau of Economic Analysis