Are Cables Better Than High Grade Speaker Wire?

What I am really asking is I can purchase high grade speaker wire pretty inexpensively. Say $50, if I choose to put spades or banana plugs on the price will go up but still pretty inexpensive. I see cheap cables for $100's and the prices rise dramatically from there.
So the question comes down to why pay so much for cables when I can simply buy wire and save a lot of money. Do the cables perform that much better?

Thanks