I posted some of this at Steel Magnolias home, but I was a downer at the party and decided to come home. I thought the cake would make me feel better (thanks Steel Magnolia), but the economy is not leaving me anything to smile about.
I have unemployed family members (three so far) with large school loans and parents who are at the end of their savings due to having that retirement money invested during the 2008 fall. They lost a great deal and then used some to live on so that when the 2009 20% run-up happened , they had less to grow and now they are close to an end to that money and need to find jobs also. Jobs are not easy to come by and my family is frustrated and scared. So, thinking about the Chinese buying our physical assets does worry me greatly and shows we have a little ways to go before it turns around.
My observation (reprinted and enhanced from the discussion in Steel Magnolia's thread) - I was minding my own business (which I'm very good at), buying some groceries at my local large chain grocery store, when I noticed some Chinese wondering around with cameras and video equipment, pounding on the support posts and video taping shoppers and workers in the store. Apart from feeling annoyed at being caught on tape with my groceries in my hand and the weird deja vu feeling taking me back to the eighties when Japanese with cameras were everywhere, I had a very strong 'uh oh' moment.
At the checkout counter I asked if the grocery store was going to be sold to the Chinese and the clerk confirmed that the Chinese were there to look at the store. Admittedly they could be there just to see how this chain operates so they can take that info back to start their own version of this grocery chain in China, but why look at this store which is not the biggest or located in a large metro city like DC.
So, I'm left thinking they are going to buy this chain, which leads to some more speculation about the health of this corporation and why the Chinese would want to buy the end of the food supply chain. Moving down this very speculative path, I wonder if we will start seeing Chinese food products in this store. Or will the Chinese follow the path of the Japanese when the USA finds that next bubble in the economy.
(Beginning of fantasy line of speculation - I can't help but go to the Firefly universe (watching Castle last night made the connection) and wonder if this is the cultural beginning that leads to a melding of the best of both societies. End of fantasy line of speculation).
So, if our economy was in recovery, why are stores still empty and some may be selling to outside investors. Would a booming economy allow for camera wielding Chinese to be looking for opportunities? I think we are at least 3-5 years from a booming economy and that this giant sucking sound we are hearing is the void being filled by outside money buying our physical assets. That helps the outside economies in the short term, but like Japan, could bite China in the end.
In the meantime, I am worried and see manipulation (treating the symptoms) continuing, all designed to prop up our failing economy for as long as possible. If the economy was an organism and the toxic debt was the disease, I would want the doctor to treat the toxic debt and not the symptoms of the toxic debt. Treating the symptoms and not the disease give the disease more time to destroy more cells (economic sectors) and allows opportunistic pathogens (outside investors, high frequency trading, etc...) to run rampant which leads to a catastrophic collapse in the end.
The Chinese (and other foreigners) buying our physical assets is just another opportunistic pathogen and they will go down when the USA goes down assuming they have all there investments in the USA which they do not. The Chinese are heavily invested in Africa and in the middle east. They continue to buy the rare earth minerals and copper/aluminum/iron reserves of this planet. It's this diversification that worries me because when the toxic debt kills our economy, the Chinese will be running our food supply chain and technology development (which relies on rare earth metals).
It's raining here. Maybe this is influencing my mood:suspicious: I think I'll watch Finding Nemo now.
