Goldman Sachs Sitting On Goldmine

According to Thomson Reuters data, Goldman Sachs is sitting on the second largest pile of cash out of all U.S. companies.With $41.1 billion, only General Electric at $72.3 billion has more has more that Goldman. Interestingly, out of the top twenty, Goldman is the only Wall Street bank. Berkshire Hathaway comes third with $20.6 billion. Prudential Financial has $13.2 billion, and MF Global Holdings has $10.3 billion.One idea - put forward by DealBook - is that those stockpiling dollars will embark on a spree of acquisitions, but in Goldman's case, I doubt that. Perhaps what the mountain of cash really highlights is how close Goldman may have come to folding during the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse, and how Goldman is making sure such a situation does not happen again.Chart: here