Saturday, 19. January 2008, 19:00:26
economy, America, USA
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.
The depressed stock market, cash-strapped financial companies and enfeebled dollar are making
American assets and investments highly attractive to overseas investors. It's all part of the price of living beyond your means, as America has done for a long time now. What it will all mean in the long run - who knows? But it is clear that the United States global financial dominance is eroding.
All things must pass.
Tuesday, 24. July 2007, 01:01:07
USA, debt, bad government, money
...
Every now and then - and with increasing frequency in all areas - I come across truly cogent articles elucidating in painful detail exactly why George Bush and his calamitous government has wrecked a great country. In
this case, a financial analysis based on the thoughts of Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International). A pertinent quote:
The truth is, America's leaders have already squandered "Hamilton's gift" (a policy of paying off war debt), and along with it, more than two centuries of experience, replacing it with a new "faith-based" policy: "Deficits don't matter."
No wonder Main Street Americans have a "gut instinct" that we're a disaster waiting to happen. Not only are we "transferring an inordinate burden to future generations," says Hormats, Washington's undisciplined spending and total lack of a financial repayment plan is undercutting our national security and exposing America to the worst-case scenario: Another domestic terrorist attack that would trigger a "massive disruption of our economy" and a meltdown of America's credit rating throughout the world.
Monday, 19. February 2007, 02:32:48
ice, Valley View Glades Natural Area, woods, Missouri
...
...was through the very wintry and bare
Valley View Glades Natural Area near Hillsboro, Missouri. Not as cold as I anticipated, nonetheless this picture sums up the environment very well!
More photos
here and
here.
WIDGETIZE