Well, duh now.

It took them seven months, but the Huffington Post seems to have finally caught up with AT in identifying the central problem holding back the revival of the American economy.

In a piece authored by Dan Froomkin, Arianna's leftist rag reports that  some UMass economists have found corporate America is withholding at least $ 3.6 trillion in cash and marketable securities from productive investment in the U.S. marketplace. The total -- the study's authors and Huffington Post call it a "hoard" -- comprises both bank holdings and cash and marketable securities at big American companies.

That's a record. And the $ 3.6 trillion total is only likely to get bigger as we lurch toward the 2012 election.

Sez Arianna: "Corporate America Is Sitting on the Solution to the Jobs Crisis: Report." Yep. To date, AT has run at least four articles highlighting this problem.

"Capital strike" even rates an entry in Wikipedia. But, until today,  the silence on the left has been deafening.

That's because this happened before, back during the Great Depression. In 1937, the economic recovery which had started in FDR's first term stalled as a result of that President's anti-business policies. President Franklin Roosevelt -- like President Barack Obama yesterday in Kansas -- responded by railing against America's private sector leaders.  The Roosevelt Administration even proposed an "excess profits tax" to seize that money for the federal fisc.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, as John Kerry might say. According to Huffington Post, the UMass economists seem to think that more taxes and stimulus are just the ticket to

unlock the "hoard." Will they ever learn?

That's why there is a "hoard."

Listening to Mr. Obama's speech in Kansas yesterday, we wondered if he might not have something similar to that UMass study in mind. His speech was more FDR than TR.

Okay, so now we have a diagnosis which even the left accepts as valid. What's the prescription?

Why is corporate America sitting on its hands? Well, we think maybe that job-creator down in Georgia last month had it right. Certainly, U.S. Cranes of Waco, Georgia, gave us some early holiday cheer.

"New Company Policy," the signs on the company's trucks read, "We Are Not Hiring Until Obama Is Gone." After images of U.S. Cranes' signs went viral, the Secret Service dropped by its offices for a little, um, chat with owner Bill Loman. Loman -- a ten-year Marine Corps veteran -- says the agents left laughing. And the signs are still up.

So, what can President Obama do right now to end the Capital Strike? That's easy. 

Resign, sir. Otherwise, Newt Gingrich will be proved right.

Out on the stump, Gingrich is  telling voters: "[e]conomic recovery will begin late on Election Night when Americans realize Barack Obama is going back to Chicago and Republicans have won control of the Senate."

Update: Arianna's made it her front page now: WE'RE HOARDING, THEY'RE HURTING...Piece doesn't say "capital strike" either