> [1] The flipside of this is that it's an indictment of companies that hoard huge amounts of cash, like Apple. That they can't find a way spend it building future stuff is a signal that they are out of big ideas, and (in the case of Apple) have been for some time.

I partially disagree on this. Apple's $250 Billion dollars stashed in Europe is both a way to defer paying taxes on these profits (the main reason), and a huge gun pointed at the head of the US government (a secondary, but important reason). That amount of money is now big enough to count as a constant threat to market stability, currency stability, etc.