Million-dollar investors prefer cash (Reuters/CNNMoney)

Wealthy Americans trust greenbacks more than stocks and bonds, HSBC Bank survey reveals.
June 20, 2006: 11:25 AM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wealthier Americans say they are keeping more assets in cash than advisers often recommend, a new survey shows, suggesting growing comfort with rising cash yields amid unease about prospects for stocks and bonds.

The findings from HSBC Bank USA's survey, released Tuesday, suggest that wealthier investors are cautious in a year when cash has outperformed stocks and bonds and as yields on some cash investments approach 5 percent.

It also suggests there might be plenty of cash available to deploy in riskier investments if sentiment improves.

"Individuals and corporations feel it's a more dangerous world, since 9/11 in particular," said Money Fund Intelligence publisher Peter Crane, a specialist in cash investments. He had not seen the HSBC survey.

"There is also a realization that returns on other investments have been good for a while," Crane added. "Cash returns approaching 5 percent may seem a no-brainer if expectations for returns on stocks and bonds are lower."
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more: http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/20/pf/survey.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

"This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores," quipped the GOP standard-bearer. "Some people call you the elites; I call you my base." Looks like Bu**sh**'s base is not embracing the "booming economy" Dear Leader has brought them.

"overlooked" by the M$M as they continue with the "good news of the day" financial shows for the sheep. The BIG $$ is running away from paper as fast as they can without drawing too much attention. And what are they doing with all that cash? Putting it into tangible assets, stuff from equipment to materials to facilities to commodities, in anticipation to the juggernaut that is China.

Something the article doesn't mention, or rather avoids, is the fact that they are running to the Euro more than the USD. Also, there is a trend in the last few years to get the cash out of the country. None of which bodes well for those that are`stuck here for the foreseeable future.

which was making the money guy a little nervous a couple of months ago, but now he's seeing the wisdom of it.

He's lately mentioned shifting a little more into cash for the short term.

It's hard to know what will happen. I do know we're about to see a round of 1970s style inflation coupled with 1980s interest rates, something that should kill what's left of the consumer economy quite nicely. I still see a lot of cash out there, though, and few places to put it but stocks and bonds, now that real estate has peaked and started a slow decline.

In any case, our only real hope is to get the conservatives out of our government. Their stuff hasn't worked, isn't working, will never work.