There has been a lot of talk about all the cash U.S. corporations have accumulated since the credit crisis hit in 2008?about $2.0 trillion stashed in corporate America's bank accounts.

From the White House to the average American, encouraging businesses to spend the cash they have accumulated due to strong corporate profits would translate into jobs being created, which would obviously help turn this economy around.

However, corporations have been hesitant to spend their corporate profits because of visibility: they simply don't see where the demand for their product/service is going to come from in the future.

  Corporations, just like consumers, remain cautious and have opted to spend their corporate profits on share buybacks and dividends instead.

  Non-financial corporations?companies outside the financial industry?are sitting on $2.0 to $3.0 trillion in cash according to various reports. JPMorgan has compiled corporate profit numbers for non-financial corporations in the S& P 500, noting that, as of the end of 2011, these companies are sitting on just under $2.0 trillion in cash.

These are staggering numbers, and it is no wonder everyone is attempting to find a way to get these corporate profits into the economy, so that this economic turnaround can really get moving.

But what people are not looking at is how much corporate debt is sitting on the balance sheet of these same corporations. According to the Federal Reserve, non-financial corporations are, as of the third quarter of 2011, carrying corporate debt to the tune of just over $7.6 trillion (see chart).

As you can see from the chart, corporate debt has been in a steady climb since 1978 and, even after the financial crisis, the total number continues to rise. Needless to say, the over $7.6 trillion in present corporate debt is a record.

My point?even if we could get this economy growing again, how much can corporations really spend when they are?just like the average consumer?tied down with too much debt?

This number is much worse when one considers the anomaly that is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ/AAPL). What an amazing story Apple has turned out to be for its shareholders. As of the end of 2011, the company is sitting on an incredible $97.6 billion in cash, from corporate profits, with no corporate debt.

If we remove Apple's cash from non-financial corporations' cash-on-hand, we get $1.9 trillion, and since Apple has no corporate debt, the debt figure remains at $7.6 trillion. This means that corporations are sitting on four times more debt than cash-on-hand: $4.00 of corporate debt for every $1.