The record amount of cash on public company balance sheets currently earns nada, nothing in terms of interest income.

FORBES: Making The Case For Occupy Wall Street

Chris Petersen, president of Iowa's farmers' union, says that years of strong earnings have given them reasonably strong balance-sheets, with only half the amount of leverage they carried into the last downturn.

ECONOMIST: American farmland

Until America and Europe own up to the true magnitude of the problem and sort bad debt from good to get toxic liabilities off financial-industry balance sheets, no amount of talking or stimulus will mend the global downturn, he warns.

FORBES: Spend, Baby, Spend