Shopping Spree USA

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Overseas Investors Buy Aggressively in U.S.



New York Times
By PETER S. GOODMAN and LOUISE STORY
January 20, 2008

Last May, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate bought a Massachusetts plastics maker. In November, a French company established a new factory in Adrian, Mich., adding 189 automotive jobs to an area accustomed to layoffs. In December, a British company bought a New Jersey maker of cough syrup.

For much of the world, the United States is now on sale at discount prices. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world’s largest market.

Last year, foreign investors poured a record $414 billion into securing stakes in American companies, factories and other properties through private deals and purchases of publicly traded stock, according to Thomson Financial, a research firm. That was up 90 percent from the previous year and more than double the average for the last decade. It amounted to more than one-fourth of all announced deals for the year, Thomson said.

During the first two weeks of this year, foreign businesses agreed to invest another $22.6 billion for stakes in American companies — more than half the value of all announced deals. If a recession now unfolds and the dollar drops further, the pace could accelerate, economists say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/business/20invest.html?ex=1358571600&en=c95da36f5235da54&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[HereSince1628]

1. I hope they lose their shirts for having come in too high.

Call me bitter, but there it is.

If I'm going to serve a colonial master I hope it ruins her.

[fasttense]

2. I don't get it.

The free market idiots want the US government to privatize all their functions, yet it is ok for foreign governments to nationalize our US private functions.

It is national governments like Dubai, Saudi and China that are buying up a lot of our once private corporations, in effect, they are nationalizing our US private functions. But that's a ok for the free market idiots like Greenspin and the bushes.