USA For Sale

With the dollar falling in value and the real estate bubble popping, foreign investors are snapping up assets in the USA for bargain prices. It's not always a bad thing when foreigners buy US real estate. Sometimes it can be seen as a vote of confidence in the long term sustainability of this country. However, when investors from the Middle East, who really don't like us, start holding $billions and even $trillions in US assets, it may be a concern. Read what Chuck Missler has to say about this;

"The sale of several high profile properties, to investors from Europe and the Middle East, have made headlines in recent weeks. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council, a sovereign wealth fund based in the United Arab Emirates, is in negotiations to buy a 75 percent stake in Manhattan's Chrysler Building. The deal is estimated to be worth about 800 million dollars. It follows last month's sale of the GM Building and three other properties for approximately 4 billion dollars to a group of investors from Kuwait and Qatar. Also, a European firm has acquired a majority share in New York's famous Flatiron Building, the historic structure known for its triangular shape. Foreign buyers poured almost 55 billion dollars into US commercial real estate last year - that's about double the amount of 2006. High profile investments, such as the sale of the Chrysler Building, have brought attention to the rise in foreign investment. Direct foreign investment in US businesses reached about 280 billion dollars last year – making 2007 the second highest year on record. In recent years the value of the US dollar has dropped significantly, inflation has increased, consumer debt has reached an all-time high, and the US housing bubble has burst. Thus opening the door for foreign investors to snatch up US interests at bargain prices. Foreign investors from Europe, China, and oil-producing nations in the Middle East are taking advantage of the United States financial woes. However the influx of foreign capital has raised some red flags.According to World Net Daily, "the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Affairs has announced that it will stop publishing a key report tracking foreign investment data... The BEA's decision comes at a time when public and congressional concerns have increased over the acquisition of US assets by foreign investors... Sovereign wealth funds in six Persian Gulf countries, including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, have now amassed 1.7 trillion dollars, positioning them for attempts to control major banks and securities firms in the United States... Already Middle Eastern investors have acquired 19.9 percent of Nasdaq, the second largest stock exchange in the United States.""