Our cash-strapped country is auctioning off its highways, ports and even parking meters, finding eager buyers in the Middle East
Sovereign wealth funds, or SWFs, are huge in the Middle East. Most of the bigger oil-producing states have massive SWFs that act as cash repositories (with holdings often kept in dollars) for the revenues generated by, for instance, state-owned oil companies. Unlike the central banks of most Western countries, whose main function is to accumulate reserves in an attempt to stabilize the domestic currency, most SWFs have a mission to invest aggressively and generate huge long-term returns. Imagine the biggest and most aggressive hedge fund on Wall Street, then imagine that that same fund is fifty or sixty times bigger and outside the reach of the SEC or any other major regulatory authority, and you've got a pretty good idea of what an SWF is.
My buddy was a young guy who'd come up working on the derivatives desk of one of the more dastardly American investment banks. After a few years of that he decided to take a step up morally and flee to the Middle East to go to work advising a bunch of sheiks on how to spend their oil billions.
Aside from the hot weather, it wasn't such a bad gig. But on one of his trips home, we met in a restaurant and he mentioned that the work had gotten a little, well, weird.
"I was in a meeting where a bunch of American investment bankers were trying to sell us the Pennsylvania Turnpike," he said. "They even had a slide show. They were showing these Arabs what a nice highway we had for sale, what the toll booths looked like . . ."
I dropped my fork. "The Pennsylvania Turnpike is for sale?"
He nodded. "Yeah," he said. "We didn't do the deal, though. But, you know, there are some other deals that have gotten done. Or didn't you know about this?"
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7 comments:
America, land of the free as long as you can afford it. No other country lets you buy their property unless your a born citizen.
WE ARE ALL SCREWED FROM GREEDY REALTERS
Factor in that the U.S. Governement is grabbing land hand over fist and now owns ONE OF EVERY THREE acres of land in the U.S. Now you see how any foreign country with enough cash will be able to BUY THE U.S. Its all part of the "global" plan and we are too unwilling to believe its possible. Hitler told the Jews it "was just a shower" too.
These greedy globalists use our tax money (gasoline taxes) to build the roads and bridges, then charge us Tolls on them.
Now, they are selling the right to collect the tolls to foreigners.
It is the country of my birthright, but I find it more and more difficult to be proud of America.
What a shame. We must be the most corrupt Nation on earth.
What they don't tell the Arabs when pitching the sale of our toll roads is this: Soon the Americans will be too poor to drive on a toll road.
They are going to screw the Arabs at the same time they sell off our country!
anyone notice the politicians promoting these deals with the greedy bankers are all democrats?
Nah then one would have to realize the truth about the democrats!
The writer is a total lefty, but this article is spot on and worrisome.
The big question is: Why don't the heads of corporations and state GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THEIR COUNTRY ANYMORE??????????
This has been going on for years. Pa turnpike has already been sold. As well as other toll roads and bridges.
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