[jmillikin]

Salaries, rent, debt payments, and AWS bills are charged in dollars. They don't accept T-bills, even though in accounting terms those are "cash-equivalent".

Notice how so much of the fallout is secondary to failed payroll transfers.

Big companies do the same thing, except their cash is kept in bigger banks with more attentive risk-management departments. Apple will never miss payroll due to someone at JP Morgan doing a YOLO on 10-year bonds.

[sam345]

Not an excuse, cash on hand needs can be handled by cash management accounts at one of the big financial institutions with cash in money market. Checking accounts are a lousy place to keep cash. At the minimum use Bank of America or similar with access to a linked Merrill Lynch treasury money market or similar.