The depth of the economic recession has caused many consumers to save more and spend less, threatening a potential recovery. What has some people more concerned, however, is the fact that businesses have ramped up their savings to historic proportions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, cash holdings among the top 500 companies in the U.S. rose to nearly $1 trillion, even excluding financial companies that routinely have huge cash balance sheets. Throughout the economy in a wide range of different sectors, you can find companies that are putting cash aside at an impressive rate. Here's a sampling:

Company

Cash and Short-Term Investments, Most Recent Quarter

Change in Cash and Short-Term Investments Over Past 4 Quarters

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)

$22.0 billion

53%

Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL)

$20.6 billion

58%

WellPoint (NYSE: WLP)

$18.2 billion

237%

Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN)

$14.0 billion

44%

AT&T (NYSE: T)

$6.2 billion

287%

PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)

$3.5 billion

86% Continued...