Foreigners purchase 7 trillion dollars worth of America under Bush?

[Elwood P Dowd]

Can this be correct? That's what a banker told a friend of mine. He is scared shitless about the future. Foreigners now own 15 trillion dollars worth of American assets - double what it was in 2000.

Our budget and trade deficits will be 1.6 trillion dollars a year when Bush Idiot leaves office in 2009. We're like the farmer selling his farm one acre at a time to survive.

[melody]

1. That was always the plan

Bush is doing what he was put in place to do. Destroy us.

[The Straight Story]

2. Can we tax em to death on those assets?

For what it is worth, I am also in banking industry.

We do have a lot of foreign investment, but we also invest heavily in foreign assests. I think, perhaps, it is a good sign when other countries invest in us.

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. Not under Bushit

<nm>

[DLnyc]

5. What if those foreign companies are reality-based, instead of

faith-based like us. The market value of some of our out-moded industries and infra-structure could plummet if it's trading in a reality-based market.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but I think our banks invest in foreign assets on the assumption that they can get our government to enforce the terms of their investment, or to bail them out if things go sour. If banks from other countries are investing here, they are probably also assuming they can use their governments and financial institutions to prevent us from policy decisions that will adversely affect their investments, such as devaluing our currency or raising taxes on their profits.

for example:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2179111

Just a thought.

[The Straight Story]

6. My bank

Has a strong prescence in India (and many other countries, but I am more familiar with India as it relates to the bank I work for). We continue to buy land and buildings there, and for a lot of reasons.

Example: Power and cost per square foot is cheaper than here (A data center here costs more to run then one there). As we see strong growth in India we buy up more assets there in hope for a better return (ie, real estate market is going up - so we buy that, and as we source more there the value increments. At a peak, 2009 most likely, we sell and make huge profit, then re-source here as costs are driven down locally).

The money is played, if you will, like a game. We make more, the share holders make more, and the only people suffering are the guys like me who get their jobs outsourced (well, not me, but people I have worked with over time. My saving grace is related to federal regulations in the banking industry).

It is an up and down cycle we go through over time. The japanese invest in us because we are cheaper than their work force and can produce good autos and people to buy them locally, cutting out shipping and import taxes, et al.

Booms are followed by busts, and bargain hunters pick up the cheap deals. During the 90's things were at a premium, now they are low cost and a good buy, in next 4-6 years will be a good sell back as the economy swings upward.

It is all cyclical and countries invest and divest as it spikes and ebbs. We are on an upswing now in some areas and so it makes sense we have trillions invested in us. Real estate will bottom out soon and be a good investment, because we will swing back up on that and folks can make a profit.

Just my 2 cents :)

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. I ain't buying the happy talk

Ten years ago, I didn't know anyone unemployed or underemployed. Today, I know about a dozen. We're selling off jobs and assets to cover our losses. The Bushit crowd is tweaking the unemployment figures, the GDP figures, and the CPI figures. The shit is fixing to hit the fan.

[The Straight Story]

9. ten years ago I was unemployed

I found a crap job in CA (<7/hr). A few years later moved back to Ohio (I was 33) and lived in my mom's basement with no job.

Now I make about 80k/year and have a decent future (until they stab me in the back...). The people I know out of work have had jobs offered but don't want to work (though one just took an offer after his dad - my brother - threatened to kick him out).

The 90's were worst years of my life in many ways - from jobs to other things.

I don't blame bush or credit clinton, et al. The market works in spite of the president, not because of the president.

Do we have less oppurtunity now than in the 90's? Sure, but then we are not in a dot com bubble (which was destined to crash).

It all comes and goes, we just need to ride each wave. It sucks sometimes, is good others.

[Elwood P Dowd]

11. Strange

That's almost the identical story my repuke brother-in-law sent me last week. He claims it was an email from one of his church friends. He is also on one of those "talking points" list the repukes churn out. Strange.

[The Straight Story]

14. Strange but true

I was living in Mt Vernon Ohio at the time. A crap job making hardly any money at all.

I moved to Cali and was out of work 3 months. Then got a job making less than $7/hr. I loved my job though.

Moved back to Ohio, was making $12/hr as a contractor. Then back out to Cali for 12.50/hr.

Back to Ohio, no Job for a few months. Employed making 24/hr then company went under in dot com bust. Shortly thereafter got a job making same amount and climbed up corporate ladder to where I am now.

My life SUCKED under Clinton. But I don't blame him, nor do I credit him or bush.

Hard work, prayer, some luck, and so on have helped me out. I don't let who is in power dictate to me how well I will do. Sure they can have an influence in it all, but overall we can have a big hand in our lives. I will be damned if I blame or credit some dumbass in Washington for my own hard work.

God and my own work have gotten me more places than those assholes in DC ever will.

[acmejack]

17. I vote with you on that one!

That damned Clinton, thank God for the *economy, I better run& get meone them $80K a yearjobs, ya'll hiring, sport?

[sandnsea]

15. Always sucks with Republicans in office

Funny how that wave seems to ride.

There's a certain amount of truth in what you say, what with cycling money around and all. The wealthy certainly do that, as can be seen with the price of gold. But it's not coming back here any time soon. We aren't investing in our own future, we're not going to have anything to build on unless we get somebody else with vision in office.

Dot com bubble? How about federal dollars into schools and colleges and hospitals and libraries and city halls. How about the changes in the telecommunications laws that opened up ISP's and wireless. How about government internet sites. There were reasons for a tech explosion, including Y2K.

It doesn't happen because of "cycles". It won't happen again until we get somebody in the White House who gets that and can see the next big thing and invest in it.

[cornermouse]

16. Uhh.

Real estate has at least doubled here in the last 18 months to a year.

[Old and In the Way]

4. My theory on the front end tax cuts

That was priority#1. I think it was to give the "haves and have mores" some good hard cash in lieu of cashing out of the market. They've been planning on killing the country for a while. Buy stuff from China with debt securities....when our trading partners started to get nervous, so we start selling off the tangible assets.

Is it peak oil? Maybe. Interesting that Bush's Crawford Ranch has a renewable energy infrastructure.

[aquart]

7. Bush was our corporate raider.

He sold off our assets.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. America is the Sunbeam Corporation and bu$h is Chainsaw Al

Chainsaw Al
He anointed himself America's best CEO. But Al Dunlap drove Sunbeam into the ground

http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_42/b3651099.htm

[pnorman]

12. Getting back to this question:

"Foreigners purchase 7 trillion dollars worth of America under Bush?"

Can anyone provide a DEFINITE link? Here's all I was able to Google:

Foreign investment affects Americans' lives every day
Foreign ownership is prevalent throughout key parts of the U.S. economy:

•Debt— More than half of U.S. debt available for public purchase is held by foreigners, according to the Treasury Department. In December, foreigners owned $2.2 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities out of a total of $4 trillion of privately held U.S. debt. The biggest holders were Japanese, who owned $685 billion of Treasury securities at the end of 2005.

•Energy— More than a 10th of the crude oil and natural gas produced in the USA in 2003 (the most recent data) was produced by companies at least partially owned by foreign firms, the Energy Department reports. BP, which was formed in 1998 from the merger of British Petroleum and Amoco, accounts for most of the oil and natural gas produced by foreign-affiliated companies in the USA. Twenty-seven of the 145 U.S. refineries in 2003 were owned by foreign-affiliated companies.

•Airlines— After World War I, Congress barred foreign interests from holding more than 25% of the voting shares of any U.S. airliner. The concern was that during times of war, when aircraft owned by U.S. carriers are hired by the Pentagon to transport troops quickly to war zones, airlines controlled by foreigners might restrict such usage.
>
>

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-22-ports-foreign-investment_x.htm

pnorman

[Crayson]

13. Dollar presses

America prints petro-dollars since 40 years ago.
Wonder why Saudi Arabia owns half of the US?