Markets moved lower for the fourth straight week after the Fed kept open the possibility that it will raise rates again in June.

My money is still on a single rate hike later in the year and not next month,  but the 12-headed Hydra known as the Federal Open Market Committee (aka The Committee to Destroy the World) said just enough to keep markets worried last week, thus the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA) and S&P 500 are both up a mere 0.4% on the year.

But, considering that these indexes are trading at nearly 20 times GAAP earnings, (and that GAAP earnings are complete bull because they are inflated by billions of dollars of bogus non-GAAP adjustments (see Valeant Pharmaceuticals Int’l Inc. [NYSE: VRX] and Sunedison Inc. [OTC: SUN]), this is better than investors deserve.

What’s more, have no illusions about the “vast cash hoard” Corporate America is thought to have on hand. As you’ll see, that’s a fairy tale…

The “Great American Cash Pile” Is a Myth

The truth is, U.S. companies are dangerously leveraged after surrendering to their own greed and that of activist investors whining for share buybacks and dividend hikes in lieu of investing money back in their businesses.

Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are finally catching on to what I’ve been warning about for a couple of years: U.S. corporations are more highly leveraged now than before the 2008 financial crisis.

This leverage is disguised by low interest rates, but all of this debt has to be repaid and many companies are generating insufficient cash flow to do so.

In fact, the so-called vast cash hoard of Corporate America is highly concentrated among a small group of just five companies: Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL),Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), Alphabet, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG),  Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), and Oracle  Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) – holding more than a third of it.