Given zero interest rates and the huge amount of newly created money, companies have added huge amounts of cash to their balance sheets.

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Corporations are accumulating record amounts of cash on their balance sheets.

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Also pointing to a rise in P2P deals is the attraction of PE funds to the large number of public companies carrying record amounts of cash on their balance sheets.

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There had been concerns about Southern Cross's business model for years and it struggled to balance the books as local authorities reduced the amounts they were spending on social care.

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Borrowers could pick how much to pay each month, including amounts so small they inflated the loan balance and practically insured the mortgage would blow up.

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Part of the problem is that when the large banks took their share of the money, adding billions of capital and liquidity to their balance sheets, investors were encouraged and happy to buy up the large amounts of additional shares that the banks issued, providing the banks with still more capital, which they used to pay back their TARP loans.

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