It’s sort of a running joke among all of us who love Apple products — which is basically everyone at this point, right? — that Steve Jobs is our ruthless, tyranical overlord (The man is turning Grand Central into an Apple store!), and we, his irrationally loyal subjects, are all too eager to give him our money hand over foot. So how much money does Apple have? A lot.
According to the latest statement from the U.S. Treasury, the government had an operating cash balance Wednesday of $73.8 billion. That’s still a lot of money, but it’s less than what Steve Jobs has lying around.
Tech juggernaut Apple had a whopping $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of June, according to its last earnings report. Unlike the U.S. government, which is scrambling to avoid defaulting on its debt, Apple takes in more money than it spends.
This symbolic feat — the world’s most highly valued tech company surpassing the fiscal strength of the world’s most powerful nation — is just the latest pinnacle for Apple, which has been on an unprecedented roll.
I’m not sure what this says more about: The laughable but terrifying plight of American might, or the breathtaking heights to which Apple has soared?
Oh, and speaking of breathtaking, watch the show this whale puts on for some marine biologists not named George Costanza after they saved its life by cutting it loose from some netting it had become entangled in…
(Video HT: Boing Boing)