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America for Sale, bushco is the broker....

Goodpasture

Well-known member
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/04/opinion/oe-weiner4
Mortgaging America

America’s for sale. Just ask Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

With the U.S. economy in shambles, Paulson just spent four days touring the Middle East, hat in hand, looking for investors to bail us out. Specifically, on Monday, Paulson met with heads of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the world’s largest “sovereign wealth fund” with roughly $875 billion in assets, and encouraged them to buy American businesses.

<snip>

Sovereign wealth funds, or SWFs, basically are mutual funds that invest the excess capital generated by a region or country. The first one was established by Kuwait when it still was a British territory. After World War II, as Kuwait was negotiating independence, its leader, Sheik Abdullah al Salem al Sabah, asked the British to help him create a fund that would invest the nation’s oil profits. The Kuwait Investment Board, which eventually became the Kuwait Investment Authority, today has about $250 billion in assets and is one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world.

<snip>

These kinds of investments raise “profound questions” of geopolitical power, as former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers pointed out a few months ago at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Summers’ essential complaint is that there is no way of knowing if there is a political agenda behind a country’s investment in these essential industries.

To that end, the International Monetary Fund is trying to draft a code of “best practices” that SWFs can adopt voluntarily. The funds generally have been resistant to the idea, although Abu Dhabi and Singapore have signed an agreement with the Treasury Department that lays out principles for the countries’ funds to be more transparent and not politicize their investments.

But on a practical level, the growing influence of SWFs really brings up much more basic concerns. What does it mean for Americans to have decisions about our jobs, our home loans, our school loans and so on to ultimately rest with foreign governments? What does it mean to surrender this level of control over our own economy?

The trouble is, we don’t know. And that raises perhaps the most important question of all: What if the cure to our mortgage crisis is more deadly than the disease itself?

Emphasis added

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Lou Dobbs had a deal on the other day where he was questioning King Georges wisdom on allowing a company owned by some of these SWF's to buy a railroad- that is used only to run back and forth between several of our Military Bases and shuttle's Nuclear and Top Secret material between these Bases... :shock:
And the purchasing company admits SWF ownership- but refuses to release the names of the owners... :shock:
But like Dobbs said- GW will put the almighty global dollar ahead of US security (just like he has done with our borders) and let these unknown countries buy up and operate the railroad :roll: :( :mad:
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Heres a link to the Dobbs railroad story:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/06/10/ldt.pilgrim.america.for.sale.csx.cnn
 

MoGal

Well-known member
Not only is America for sale, now they aren't going to let us know what foreigners are investing in US businesses:
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Foreign investment in the United States is on the rise and key U.S. businesses and infrastructures such as roads and airports are being sold to foreign investors. Now comes word from the U.S. Department of Commerce the Bureau of Economic Affairs will stop publishing a key report tracking those foreign dollars.

WND reported earlier on a decision by the Federal Reserve to quit publishing M3 data, a money-supply measure watched closely by economists.

Last month, econometrician John Williams reported on his subscription website, "Shadow Government Statistics," that the M3 statistic he compiles from available government data shows the growth of M3 at historically high rates last seen in June 1971, two months before President Nixon closed the gold window and instituted wage and price controls.

Charles McMillion, president and chief economist at MBG Information Services in Washington, D.C., also has expressed concern over the recent decision by the Department of Commerce to discontinue publishing foreign investment data and warned that may forecast an unprecedented surge in foreign investment anticipated by the Bush administration.

In the announcement, BEA claimed funding limitations necessitated halting future reports.

The most recent report, released Wednesday, showed direct foreign investment in U.S. businesses reached $276.8 billion in 2007, the second largest amount recorded and the highest since 2000, when new foreign investment outlays peaked at $335.6 billion.

Of the direct foreign investments in the U.S. in 2007, only about 10 percent, approximately $21.9 billion, established new U.S. businesses, while foreign investments to acquire existing U.S. businesses totaled $255.0 billion.

Nearly 37 percent of the foreign investments in 2007 involved European investors, although the BEA noted investments from Asia and the Middle East rose substantially.

McMillion noted in an e-mail that the BEA decision to discontinue publishing foreign investment data comes at a time when public and congressional concerns have increased over the acquisition of U.S. assets by foreign investors

McMillian referenced the recent attempt by "China's mysterious but closely state-aligned Huawei" to acquire 3Com, a key supplier of Internet security technologies to the U.S. Department of State, in conjunction with Boston-based Bain Capital, a private equity firm founded by Republican 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In March, Bain pulled out of the deal after learning that the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, organized in the U.S. Treasury Department, planned to block the deal.

In May, during a four-day trip to the Middle East that included Saudi Arabia and Dubai, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson encouraged foreign investment in the United States, arguing the controversy over Dubai Ports in 2006 did not reflect an adverse U.S. attitude toward foreign investment.

"I have met with many leaders from the Middle East who ask if the United States really continues to welcome investment," Paulson said in a speech to the U.S.-United Arab Emirates Business Council, according to Bloomberg.com. "As we seek to open new markets abroad, America will keep our markets open at home to investment from private firms and from sovereign wealth funds."


WND previously reported since the beginning of the year, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, two of the largest United Arab Emirate states, have been in discussions with the U.S. Treasury, offering reassurances that their investments in U.S. banks and security firms would not impose restrictions usually dictated by Islamic law, commonly known as sharia.

WND also has reported sovereign wealth funds in six Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, have now amassed $1.7 trillion, positioning them for attempts to control major banks and securities firms in the United States.

In September 2007, Dubai acquired 19.9 percent of Nasdaq, the second largest stock exchange in the United States.

WND also reported last month the top bid to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike on a long-term public-private-partnership, or PPP lease, for a bid of $12.8 billion was submitted by Spanish infrastructure management company Abertis Infraestructuras of Barcelona.
 
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