Liking That Approach

Apple became $300 billion more valuable in the past 12 months, $15 billion of it today.
During the same period Apple outperformed Google, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500.

Apple will pay $38 billion in extra taxes, happily, apparently.

Apple said it would invest $30 billion in capital spending in the U.S. over five years that would create more than 20,000 jobs. The total includes a new campus, which initially will house technical support for customers, and $10 billion toward data centers across the country....All told, Apple said it would directly contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy over the next five years, with the bulk—about $55 billion this year, for example—coming from ongoing spending on parts and services from U.S. suppliers. That number also includes the federal tax payment and capital spending.

companies must pay a one-time tax of 15.5% on overseas profits held in cash and other liquid assets. Apple cited those changes as the reason for its giant tax payment, which it said would likely be the largest of its kind, but didn’t say how much of its $252.3 billion in overseas cash holdings it plans to bring home.

Unlike previous repatriation schemes, the lower tax rate (15.5% vs. 35%) does not require Apple to bring the money home, or specify what it need be spent on (for example, new jobs).

“There’s no longer an economic reason to maintain cash offshore to avoid high U.S. taxation,” said Richard Lane, senior vice president at Moody’s. “For that reason, offshore cash balances are going to come down quite notably from our estimate of $1.4 trillion at the end of 2017,” he added....Companies don’t have to bring the money home, they’re just required to pay the tax on it.

Once unlocked, capital can be applied to its highest and best use, whether it be foreign or domestic expansion and hiring, debt repayment, share buybacks, or dividends. The tax law, once a barrier to applying overseas profits to spending in the U.S., will be much less of a hindrance.

The government is letting companies make the "capital allocation" decisions for themselves; soaring stock prices seem to like that approach.