australia named a chinese colony, page-23

bozzle

"Put your xenophobic hats back in the closet guys and gals and consider where we would be if these countries didn't invest in Australia..."

Free and wealthy I suppose.

And forced to confront our economic issues rather than have paper shuffling ponzi housing booms which simply force up the price of an essential item to young Australians.

We might again learn to produce things, and actually participate in the 21st century by being innovative. Actually, I wonder whether you can have an advanced economy without a successful manufacturing base, which has been the basis of economic progress in the western world.

As long as we can sell ourselves into slavery our politicians will ensure that they will take the cheap and easy road.

In any case any benefits from the investment is being used to fund all those added costs from the excessive population growth (eg roads, electricity plants, schools etc) and the social services that go with that.

The social costs of the foreign investment is paid mainly by Australians while the benefits go overseas.

Always remember what Buffett says - the real value of an asset is not its current price but what it can generate over time. PE ratios typically are 12-15 while asset lives may be 20 years plus (in the case of the sale of ASX the asset life has no end date). Hence the value at which assets are sold is well below the long term income stream. It is this residual value not captured by the PE ratio where Buffett has made his money. In a sense by selling our assets we are funding the takeover of the country, because foreign companies such as Xstrata ( for example) is expanding in Australia from profits it has generated from the cheap takeover of MIM.

And do not forget the issue of tax evasion (eg via transfer pricing etc), and the constant pressure by foreign owned companies to bring in their own workers rather than train locals and to thereby depress wage rates.

Think about it, before you simply accept the mythology that foreign investment is good. If it were so good then China and India would have allowed BHP, Rio, Vale etc to take over their mining industries - but in fact they want to take over ours!!!

loki (I do have an economics degree as well as several other pieces of paper from tertiary institutions)

PS - thus ends the lesson