NYT: China Can Pull Plug On US Real Estate Bubble

[leveymg]

If you're ready to get angry and worried (again), read this Times business section report about about how a handful of Chinese money managers gained a corner on the American mortgage industry during the past four years, and can now pop the real estate bubble when they're ready.

Cheer up. Feel happy you're not one of those Americans who feel really secure about the prospect of a second Bush Administration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/business/worldbusiness/04banker.html


December 4, 2004
Dollar's Fall Tests Nerve of Asia's Central Bankers
By JAMES BROOKE and KEITH BRADSHER

OKYO, Dec. 3 - As Americans embark on another season of debt-supported holiday spending, they might want to give thanks that Masatsugu Asakawa is still buying in America, too.

Mr. Asakawa, 46, is the top official at the Finance Ministry here responsible for managing the largest portfolio of United States government securities in the world, worth a staggering $720 billion. As the dollar has slumped this fall, many investors have started to worry that Mr. Asakawa and his counterparts elsewhere in Asia will be tempted to pare their holdings, perhaps causing the currency to plunge much further and setting off a round of interest rate increases in the United States that could send the global economy into a tailspin.

But Mr. Asakawa, at least for now, says that he intends to keep right on adding American holdings to Tokyo's portfolio.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[acmavm]

1. And I.B.M. is looking to sell their PC company to the Chinese as well.

So pretty soon, they ought to own the ground we walk on, the buildings we live in, the technology we use to communicate. I hear that Chinese is a very hard language to learn. I'd better get busy.

[tmooses]

2. Bring this article to show your conservative relatives over the holidays

[NewHampshireDem]

3. Not to be the LBN police, but please read the rules for posting!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html


It is important to limit the length of your excerpts to three or four paragraphs, otherwise you open DU up to potential copyright violations and liability.

Welcome to DU! :wave:

[Old and In the Way]

4. You sell all these ads for debt consolidation and refinancing.

I've wondered where the capital is coming from to do this.....I think we now know. Between the Sauds and SE Asia, I wonder what % of America we still own?

[kodi]

5. and the Right worries about the UN destroying America?

our bills will come due and then we are thru.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

8. The UN

Ever check on how much we owe them?

The United States doesn't pay its UN membership fees.

Isn't that precious?

[Robert Oak]

6. The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them

Lenin

[VegasWolf]

12. Yes, or themselves. n/t

[OldLeftieLawyer]

7. We're a debtor nation

And Fuckface has increased our debt daily.

The minute China wants to destroy us, they don't have to nuke us - all they have to do is call in our paper. We're screwed.

George Carlin said it best when he said that we should all relax - that China's gonna take it all.

What amazes me is how people aren't aware of this. Where do they think the cash comes from? The same Tooth Fairy who's financing that hideous Iraqi occupation that Fuckface calls a "castrophic success." That might have been his one moment of lucidity and honesty in all his miserable life.

I hope they're all glad they voted for him. And I hope every one of them goes into bankruptcy and loses everything.

[MatrixEscape]

9. Pseudonym OT

I use the same name for him when I see him on TV :)

On Topic: Yeah, China looks like a winner in the end.

[VegasWolf]

13. They already are a winner on almost any economic indicator. US

slips to number 2. Soon to slip even further with one
of the worst high school preparation and drop out rates
of any developed country, and disdain for new biotechnology
and pharma products. The US is so 20th Century thanks to
awol.

[BeHereNow]

10. Hold your mud and bide your time...

the day is closer than you think.
bhn

[itzamirakul]

11. Is the concept too big to grasp?

I have been preaching this same information for a couple of years now, eversince I discovered how much of just New York City alone is owned by foreign investors. Imelda Marcos of the Philipines owns large chunks of Fifth Avenue. The Saudis own large chunks of this island and the Chinese and Japanese own the rest - Donald Trump be damned.

No matter how much you try to get this information over to those who are Bush supporters, they just seem incapable of grasping the true implications of what this really means.

Years ago a book came out entitled, "The Selling of America." Well, it looks like our leaders have finally finished the job. Now all we need is to vote into office a foreign-born President who has dual citizenship and the job of taking America away from its native-born citizens and selling it for personal profit will be complete!

[pilgrimsoul]

14. What I Don't Understand is...

why Japan is buying so many U.S. treasuries at a time when the dollar is on a steep decline. But then, I am a relative neophyte to investment strategies. Can someone more experienced please explain this to me?

[NYC]

15. No, I can't, but

I suspect that if America plummets, we won't be spiralling down the vortex alone.

[VegasWolf]

16. Yes, there is a caveat attached "But Mr. Asakawa, at least for now, "

they are closely watching the dollar. Any further slips
or major economic conditions such as OPEC changing it
bias to the euro, and they are out. They have massive investments
now and wish to see those protected, but if the dollar drops
more, it will be get as much as you can and bail.

[VolcanoJen]

17. leveymg... please limit your article excerpts to 4 paragraphs or less.

Per DU copyright rules:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules.html#copyright

Thanks!

VolcanoJen
DU Moderator

[Disturbed]

18. Ah...the Irony!

Amerika the country that crows about Independence.

It is making sense to me now how the Neo Facists do not care if there is a Middle Class in Amerika. They prefer two classes: The Rich and the Working Poor.