Sovereign Wealth Funds. Who's your "daddy".

It's a sorry situation, plain and simple.   We are in trouble, and no one at the higher levels seems to care, or it's so out of control they can't do anything about it.  

BB - this post and all these comments have been an enormous lesson for me in things I don't usually follow very much.  But today, I've certainly learned a few things here.  And like Renee wrote, i'll be watching what I buy from now on.

Thanks for posting this, and a well-deserved feature.
Ann

It is scary & honestly since I've been alive globalization has been huge. Why not outsource to foreign counties & pay weekly wages equal to an hour's wage here? Why not import all of our consumer items to save a buck? Why care that we are literally 'owned' by these other countries?

It is all about making a buck right? NOT for me. It is really scary what is going on right now & what will happen in the future. We are tooo dependent upon other's countries & what happens when one of them backs out or sells off? WHO KNOWS.

I am not a big political follower so I don't know who is to blame but we are all living in the US so we should do something. I thought that was a democracy.

Hey- You guys are 90 years late to the party!  I have wrote a number of posts over this and other issues. If you don't think that there are people that have been trying to sell us down the River since our INCEPTION, you are living in a Corporate Media Induced Brain Wash.   From the Civil War,  WWI,  WWII and up to today with the sub prime distraction...we sheep have been SHEARED.  I hope you all have international Funds ;>)  

Here's a great Post worth watching and then get informed! 

http://www.realestatezealot.com/blog/2007/09/current-credit-.html 

Thanks to Ronald Regan for eliminating tariffs, when he took office we were #1 in exporting finished goods and importing raw materials, today it is exactly the opposite, we hardly manufacture anything in this country anymore.

We need a giant shift in our ecomomic policies.

Bringing back tariffs would be a good start.

If i remember back to the days as a Investment Executive there are two key numbers that come up

1) 5% or more purchase must be disclosed to the SEC

2) 10% or more and an SEC filing must be made regarding the intension of the investor (hostile buyout etc.)

That is why you will notice all the purchases are under 10%

I am split...

On one hand (the hand you'd seem to play in this game), if China decided to really dump the 25% stake in Citi, there could be a repercussion that would go all over the place.  The financial segment would see a stock collapse.  The Street would panic, and a bunch of other holders of Citi... and all sorts of other sector stocks would start to unload.  It could even lead to a broad based sell-off, causing a dramatic drop in the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P...

But.........

If there wasn't an accompanying change in the underlying business, do you think that investors like Buffet and Kerkorian (or whatever his name is) would see the words "Fire Sale" on their way into the office...  And buy like no tomorrow?  Of course, Gates, Buffet, Kerkorian and the like would NOT have anywhere near the capability to pick up trillions in stocks, but they could show that the most successful investors in the world are buying... which might turn the street into a buying frenzy. 

Frankly, I can see the opportunities for both collapse and turn-about. 

Just my $.05... 

Bryant, I read this post when you first wrote it and decided to wait and see what I could learn from the comments. I am asking David, my partner in life and business to co-author this. He is the knower of economics (MBA) in our family. Most of the time, I won't let him tell what he knows....because I am such an optimist and it makes me cry at the sadness of the world and how bad things are. However, I asked David to read this post with me and together we would write a comment.

I learned a lot from the post. I don't feel the need to restate things. I appreciate all the comments and I feel I came to some understanding of the question that was asked. 

Our strongest tool and action remains in posting issues like this so that we can have self-organizing knowledge come forth through the comment stream. As we do this, it raises our awareness to a higher level and we become more capable of affecting our world.  As we come to a better understanding of what is happening we become empowered to act upon this new knowledge. I am here in Active Rain to become better informed and to understand how I can be a better citizen. If my only tool is to write and blogg, then I will do it. We must to take action. The written word is powerful. Discussion and dialog are our best hope for the future. 

David would make the point that our problems do not only lie with foreign investment. It also lies with the global control of money and power. It is an ever growing global crisis.

It can only be addressed as individuals taking action to inform and to get the word out. It has become so much bigger than any one person can affect. It goes beyond politics and beyond governments. It comes down to the goodness of man and the choice that is made to balance our world.

Power and money are currently the force that moves beyond all politics, governments, and countries. It is greed that will destroy.

I as an individual, can do little. When I join hands with like minds and the power of synergy does a handshake with consciousness, a silent strength comes forth. Change is possible without a fight!

I hope I have not jacked this comment stream. I am grateful for this work and the post. Thanks Bryant. You are always bringing us the provocative and good stuff! We come away and change has occurred. That is very powerful and I thank you! Good work!

Wow, some great comments and some of them are very well thought out. But now it's my turn. Here's some information to chew on about how the US is doing in the world. We are #1 in:

#1 investor in foreign counties. We own more foreign company stock than any other country in the world.  But remember, we do it through privately owned companies, individual stocks, not like the other counties that use their country's banks and dictator owned companies.

#1 Manufacturer of goods in the world, yes, we still out produce the world.

#1 in currency used, the green back, despite its slide is still the currency of commerce in the world today.

#1 place for other countries to invest in. I remember the scare that Japan was going to own all of down town NY city by the end of the 80's. They bought a few big name buildings and everyone went in to a frenzy, but like everything in business, that cycle went bust and Japan is still recovering from their real estate bubble going "POP".

and the big one....ta,tata,daaa... # 1 economy in the World. All I hear is China is going to buy us all up, or the Arabs will use all their "petrol dollars" and buy us up in our going out of business sale. People please, every year our county produces a GDP of $13 Trillion. Some estimates are upwards over $25 Trillion. Compare that to China with a GDP of 2.5 Trillion.

And if you want to know who owns more of what country, consider this. The value of the publicly traded stock in China is (2006) 2.426 Trillion and 27+% of that is owned by foreigners. compare that to the US where our stocks are worth $17 Trillion and only 10% are owned by foreigners.

We own more of the world than any other country in the world. So let them invest, let them use the money we spend over there to build our stock market, create more wealth here and improve our standard of living. It's the least they could do for us, since we let them use our money for a while.

Here's one more thought, I shop at Pulbix all the time, it seems I live there. When they ever go public I'm in, big time. But I must have a huge trade deficit with them, but yet it doesn't bother me....know why? Because I receive a value I believe is worth the money I hand over, the food and service I receive is the balance in the trade. I have a cash deficit with them and they have a food deficit with me. I call it even. This is the same with China, we buy things from them, all be it crap, and we see a value in it, we give them cash and they give us stuff (with lead in it) and we're in balance. Everyone seems to forget that just like me, I'll make more money to spend and so will the US. We're really good at making money. (and no, I don't mean just printing it, but we're good at that too)

By the way, I have a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from FSU and a minor in Communications. So I can talk about a dry subject like trade deficits and hopefully not put people to sleep. Now I have to go to sleep, did you see the time of the posting, talk about a Blog Junkie!