What Next!

[Richard_D]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080709/bs_afp/usuaepropertyinvestment

[Dave McReynolds]

I think it's actually a good thing. They could be investing their dollars anywhere in the world, and it's good for our economy that they chose to invest them here rather than in Singapore. Hopefully, whoever sold them the Chrysler building will do something with those dollars that will help stimulate our economy. Meanwhile, nothing much has changed for us: the Chrysler building is still there and I'm sure they'll be happy to rent you an office at competitive rates if any offices are vacant, the same as before.

 

Not the same as if some group were to buy Pebble Beach and turn it into a private golf club, in which case we would have lost something as US citizens. That didn't happen, of course; when a Japanese group bought Pebble Beach at the height of the Japanese economic boom, they way overpaid for it, didn't turn it into a private golf club, and then sold it for millions less than they paid for it, leaving the difference floating around in our economy.

[ltljohn]

Remember back in the 70's when gas was expensive the dollar was weak and foreign investors were buying up the USA. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't they end up losing their collective butts when the dollar went back up??

[Bob Palin]

Remember back in the 70's when gas was expensive the dollar was weak and foreign investors were buying up the USA. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't they end up losing their collective butts when the dollar went back up??

Why would that be - they owned assets valued in US dollars so they should have made out very well converting back to their now weaker currencies.

[ltljohn]

Remember back in the 70's when gas was expensive the dollar was weak and foreign investors were buying up the USA. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't they end up losing their collective butts when the dollar went back up??

Why would that be - they owned assets valued in US dollars so they should have made out very well converting back to their now weaker currencies.

 

I don't know why but I do remember large parts of NYC and LA being bought up by foreign investors and they ended up losing on the deal in the long run. I would like to be able to provide details as to why but I just do not know. Could it be that the properties were overvalued and when they went to sell them they lost on the deal.

[Ken H.]

I think it's actually a good thing.

I think it's actually a bad thing.

 

I read somewhere (can't find a source at the moment) that something like 60% of all US capitalized assets are now owned by non-US identities. How can the US no longer owning anything, even 'itself' so to speak, be anything but problematic in the long run?

[Dave McReynolds]

think it's actually a bad thing.

 

I read somewhere (can't find a source at the moment) that something like 60% of all US capitalized assets are now owned by non-US identities. How can the US no longer owning anything, even 'itself' so to speak, be anything but problematic in the long run?

 

That's why I made the distinction with some foreign group buying a national treasure and turning it into a private club, i.e. keeping Americans out.

 

Who really cares who owns the office building you rent an office from? If they let it run down, you rent from someone else. If they charge too much rent, you rent from someone else.

 

In the mean time, whoever sold the office building, who may have been an American, now has extra dollars that used to be tied up in the office building. Who knows, them may use them to stimulate our economy. Even if they don't, we're no worse off than we were before.

 

I'll have to admit, I was concerned when the Japanese bought Pebble Beach. But the way it turned out, the only ones who needed to be concerned were the Japanese investors.

 

I have expressed my concern in the past on this forum about the loss of American middle class jobs to foreign workers. Unlike a lot of people in this forum, I think we ought to do something about it. I don't think unlimited free trade is a wonderful thing for us, in particular, in the United States.

 

But this, to me, seems like the benefit side of the equation, and if we're going to have to suck it in on jobs, we may as well reap whatever benefits there are on the other side. I don't know; I'm just a dumb CPA doing taxes. If I've got it wrong, enlighten me.