In the most basic sense, a country becomes wealthy by setting capital to work. The more capital that can be put to work, the more productive labour is, and the wealthier workers and investors become. The primary source of capital in New Zealand comes from overseas by means of foreign investment -- people with money to invest who look at what New Zealand has to offer and decide its worth investing it here.
Too many New Zealanders don't like foreigners, however (or investment, for that matter). We think we might catch nasty diseases from them -- things like hard work and being enterprising.
On behalf of all those xenophobic pygmies, many of whom seem to believe that foreigners buying local property will be shipping large swathes of local land offshore, Michael Cullen has just announced that foreign investment in assets he considers strategic will now be squashed, and local shareholders will have their property rights trampled on. He's essentially telling local investors they can't do what they wish with their own property, and sending a message to foreign investors considering investing in Zealand along the lines of this: "Don't bother." The widely read Bloomberg News service has already got the message.
You may judge from that how foreign investors are likely to view this pathetic authoritarian backwater, and what chance New Zealand has of ever seriously lifting its wealth game, or of arresting our slide down the OECD's gurgler.
UPDATE 1 [4:20pm]: In a similar reaction to the announced nationalisation of Telecom's lines, which immediately shaved about a dollar of Telecom's share price, shareholders in Auckland's airport saw their shares drop from 2.48 down to 1.99 after Cullen's announcement of the 'We Hate Foreign Money' legislation (a drop of about twenty percent)before coming back to 2.20, where it is at present.
UPDATE 2: Any chance is there, do you think, of National promising to repeal this 'We Hate Foreign Money' legislation? Is there hell.
26 comments:
I agree, he has destroyed value for all investors and potentially increased the cost of money for all of us.
Plus pandering to the xenophobia present in NZ.
I have expanded on aspects of the issues athttp://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/
adamsmith, that's a great point.
As the Libertarianz immigration policy goes:
"Libertarianz will have no truck with the racist xenophobia against refugees and immigrants touted by other political parties. We will accept any refugee whom anybody wishes to sponsor and run a completely open immigration policy subject only to a requirement that immigrants waive any claim to remaining elements of the welfare state."
Inspiring stuff, isn't it?
Some people need to be reminded that it was the Telecom intervention that started this rot. And many of those complaining now were - and still are - quite happy with that. They cheered it on.
So really they look a bit silly complaining now.
It is morally corrupt to relinquish our border and major port to foreign ownership.
RR: Economic xenophobic rubbish.
"It is morally corrupt to relinquish our border and major port to foreign ownership."
Yeah, them feeelthy furrinahs will dismantle the border and the major port, pack 'em away in boxes and take 'em all away! Sheeet maaan, where would we be then? Holy Mary, we'd be without a border and that'd make us all stateless... Hmmm, perhaps that'd be a good thing. Yeah . Um. Wow! Like no border, therefore no State. Like I said, WOW! That could be good.
Colonel Colonial
With a hat-tip to Liberty Scott, Bill English vents forth in his press release with the words
"Like Labour, National believes..."
Fuck, you tell 'em Bill. As even Leighton Smith - Leighton Smith for god's sake! - realises, you can dislike all Labour all you want but don't presume that National will be any better.
Rebel Radius DAE would have been an infinitely preferable owner to a passive pension fund. Dubai is leading the world in space travel and other technology.
I think you should re-read the money speech in Atlas Shrugged.
It is New Zealand's major border, it is the government's responsibility to secure it and defend it. By all means the government can rent it out the buildings that surround it.
But the government can not sell our border.
The government must be landlord of its own border.
If our government is not responsible for NZ borders then why does NZ have a government? If NZ borders are owned by foreigners who are not NZ citizens. NZ citizens are bound to the dictatorship of her foreign owners. NZ has lost her sovereignty.
Apart from being New Zealand's major border, it is a monopoly and New Zealand citizens are potentially bound to the values of foreign dictatorship, which can be bought and sold at whim.
Oh what a bunch of arse Radius. Our border is guarded by Customs not by whoever owns the airport or docks. I mean *really*, what could the most nefarious of Canadian pensioners do? Set up a revolving door immigration line for Al Qaeda?
Two issues here:
NZ borders - Government sovereignty.
What could the most nefarious of Canadian pensioners do?
Check out their associations.
Investing heavily into Islamic companies some of who, dictate Sharia compliance within the USA. Check out their alliances, OSPREY for example.
The other members are all Islamic
Colonial First State, 31 Group for example.
Colonial First State is now (Macquarie) Goodman Property Trust
MacQuarie tried to get the airport after DPW withdrew. But MacQuarie is owned by DPW anyhow. CPP is just a Trojan Horse.
While you are at it, check out the MacQuarie Islamic Fund.
All islamic companies work together with the sole agenda of working with and promoting other islamic companies. They will pull each other dicks for favours.
Furthermore, if there was no money to be made from the airport, why are 3 major contenders busting their arses to buy it? If there is potentially lots of money to be made from the airport, why is it not being made now? What is the one thing that all 3 businesses who have attempted to buy Auckland airport all have in common? HEAVY islamic investment.
Ignorant nonsense.
It's clear that you - fearless counterjihadist (whatever the fuck that is) could not be bothered getting your facts straight before wailing about impending doom before the sinister forces of The Muslim Menace(TM). Then again I guess you don't have any grounding in Sharia/Islamic banking systems or international finance.
Thousands of western businesses - banks and others- have been using Sharia compliant instruments(usually revolving loan facilities)for decades. That's capitalism and that's globalisation.
You know,paranoia is a close cousin of narcissism - you must think NZ is VERY important in global finance picture - it isn't. This isn't an unfolding eschatological drama - it's shares in a tinpot airport for god or allah's sake.
This isn't the first time you have smeared corporates like Citigroup and Macquarie for going about their lawful business either.
You are far more interested in stoking paranoia than actually coming to an understanding what actually does, or does not, constitute a credible threat.
Get a grip on reality or you'll end up at Ruby Ridge.
Their associations irrelevant because the actual government border-defending functions of Customs and Immigration are run independently BY THE GOVERNMENT, not by whovever owns the fudging airport.
Do you think that if the airport deal went through people would then be freely able to bring in Semtex?
Rebel Rabid
...and did you know that behind every finance company in the whole world there lies a conspiracy. Yea, a conspiracy it be. A conspiracy to bring down New Zealand to the lowness even lower than what it is. Millions of people are involved in this terrible plot to get stuck in and stick it to the Kiwis. Some of the people have Jewish surnames. Bet you didn't know about the Islamic Jews. Yes well, no one else did either cause it is super secret. They even have Islamic Catholics in there with Persian names and seven wives of mixed heritage. None of them are from New Zealand but. They are part of the skull and bones secret society. Some of them know the Bush family and some of them are in with the North Koreans. Some of them have WMDs and are responsible for the destruction of the mortgage market in the USA. They are the ones who put the crocodiles in your swimmming pool at night (if you live in Florida- yes they are there too- they are all over). They are going to take away everything in little boxes. Soon they will have all the world's borders and they'll put them all in Ethnicklashistan which will be full of people fighting each other for the sheer evil of fighting each other (that and crossing borders at night) and for politics. Then the Murdochs will do a deal and collapse all conventional sport so that people will watch televised violence from Ethnicklashistan instead and bet on it. Then there will not need to be any lotto or news or sports or infotainment on TV. It'll all be condensed into one show: Reality from Ethnicklashistan- LIVE (and dead too). That Murdoch will make bulk untold money out of it & huge ratings. And guess where he is going to put it all? Into a foreign Islamic bank. Guess you knew it all along you did. Well blow me down. Who'd have guessed you'd gotten it all worked out like.
Tell us more! Please, i've got to know!
Roger
Very good Roger.
Here's my final words to her:
Scaramouch scaramouch, will you do the fandango?
Feckin' idgit.
With 'Libertarianz' like these like these no wonder poor old PC is trying to sweep water up hill.
"Thousands of western businesses - banks and others- have been using Sharia compliant instruments(usually revolving loan facilities)for decades. That's capitalism and that's globalisation."
Bullshit! That is immorality.
"Dubai is leading the world in space travel and other technology."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wppjYDj9JUc
Islamists passionately debating on Al-Fayhaa TV - October 31st 2007.
"Is the world Flat"
"Rebel Radius UAE would have been an infinitely preferable owner to a passive pension fund. Dubai is leading the world in space travel and other technology."
"We use trains and planes, but they are not our trains or planes. The (Westerners) manufacture them and export them to us. True, we can buy the most magnificent things in the world, products for our homes and for ourselves. Our people can buy the most luxurious cars, Rolls-Royce or Mercedes 500 or 700, models S, M, and L with all the luxuries. We own them, but we don't manufacture them. We don't even produce a single nail in any of these cars. Others do this for us."
The income of the entire Arab world, including the oil-producing countries, does not reach that of a European country. How come? Because we don't work, and if we do work, we don't do it professionally.
Only a small number of people work. The rest do not.
We are a nation that doesn't work. How can we develop if we don't work? When we do work, we don't do it professionally.
Unfortunately, we do not excel in either military or civil industries. We import everything from needles to missiles. This is our nation. We still haven't manufactured an engine in our Arab countries. We assemble parts, but have no manufacturing industries. India has manufactured a car, and even a plane, while we still go around in circles like a bull in who turns a grinding mill or a water weal until it reaches exactly where it started.
How come the Zionist gang has managed to be superior to us, despite being so few? It has become superior through knowledge, through technology, and through strength. It ahs become superior to us through work.
How can a nation that does not work progress? How can it grow?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eCPMD_4hCk
Transcript
http://yorkshireminer.blogspot.com/2007/04/it-is-not-very-often-that-i-agree-with.html
You happily and uncritically quote any source, not matter how un- or misinformed, as long as it is in agreement with your preconceived notions.
When faced with the facts of airport governance, operations and security - and being unable to back up assertions of share sales rendering every security agency in the country helpless - you simply play the race card: The spectre of the Arab bogeyman.
You wouldn't know Sharia finance from a hole in the ground. It never occurs to you that the US and Muslim businesses can and do have common goals.
You know, security at the US Embassy here in Auckland is always interested in people or organisations that are seen as a 'threat to US interests' in this country. The ultimate irony is that given your open hatred of 'immoral' US banks and companies YOU would be considered a much bigger threat than a Muslim on the street minding his own business.
You are deeply irrational, and why you are tolerated by admirers of Ayn Rand is a mystery to me.
A New Zealand company (Infratil) owns international airports in the UK (Glasgow Prestwick and Kent) and Germany (Lubeck).
A Spanish company owns Heathrow for fuck's sake - what bizarre planet do the xenophobes live on?
"A Spanish company owns Heathrow for fuck's sake - what bizarre planet do the xenophobes live on?"
You are of course referring to
Ferrovial
That Spanish company (Ferrovial) is rather strategic regarding to what companies it does business with and to which company it metes out stock options. The same could be said for CPP, afterall - both of these companies work alongise MacQuarie.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article354507.ece
Spain's Grupo Ferrovial
"Increased its chances of securing the biggest airport takeover in history yesterday when it hired the Australian bank Macquarie as joint financial adviser.
Macquarie has an option to buy Ferrovial's stakes in Sydney airport and Bristol airport.
Ferrovial has a 21 per cent stake in Sydney, worth about £375m, and a 50 per cent stake in Bristol, worth £106m. The option becomes valid only if it secures BAA.
Macquarie now becomes joint adviser alongside Citigroup.
http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=118763
Al Waleed's Citigroup stake in 1991 is quite possibly the biggest , most successful investment ever made by an Arab investor on Wall Street in our time."
Besides that same Spanish company has invested billions into USA road tolls and water companies alongside its Arab colleagues.
Oh and by the way,
"This same Spanish company has a 30 year contract with London's Underground Network, has bought up up a toll road network throughout the USA, whilst the Arabs are buying up global water companies, including the UK's major water supplies.
Ferrovial itself has pushed into America through Cintra, its toll-road subsidiary, which has a separate listing from the main group."
Rebel Radius
This is the first time I've heard about a Mercedes 700. I'm familiar with Daimler, having worked for them and with them over a considerable time. Given that rather glaring error, how much else of what you posit is correct I wonder?
Anyway, what is immoral about doing business with foreigners? I drive a foreign car. My launch has foreign sourced engines. The fuel I put in my vehicles is obtained from foreign sources and refined in foreign oil refineries. I even am known for consuming foreign beverages and foodstuffs. I just checked some of the labels on my clothing and shoes- foreign sourced.
If my money is good enough for foreigners to take in return for the provision of their goods and services, then their products and services are good enough for me. If they are prepared to voluntarily trade with me and I am prepared to voluntarily trade with them, how can that be a problem for you, let alone "immoral"?
LGM
LGM
You got me beat. I can't say I have ever seen the any label anywhere, marked "Foreign".
Although, I did know of a band called "Foreigner"
I am at a loss as to what the problem is with selling the Airport to whomever wants to purchase it.
This goes for anything else in NZ.
In an ideal World, as many NZ 'assets' and investments as possible would be owned by foreigners, whilst NZers invested their money abroad purchasing shares.
(Such a suggestion will undoubtedly be greeted with horror by most people in NZ, but I am happy to debate this some other time)
Rebel Radius
The point is that it is not immoral if foreigners (as in, people who live overseas, or, people who are non-resident in NZ, or, people who are non-NZ citizens) purchase the airport or ports etc. They can provide goods or services and if I like them, I'll buy. If I don't, I won't. It'll be in their interests to do it properly or they'll lose their fortunes and the resources they once controlled will be reallocated elsewhere.
It is important for Kiwis to realise that if they continue along the path of welfarism and non-prroductivity then they will not be the owners of anything, here or there or elsewhere. Xenophobia and bigotry will not suffice as a substitute for freedom and productivity.
LGM
Anyone here (LGM, PC or ScotLiberty) would like to make a comment on my (Falafulu Fisi's) message here on this blog, about the government intervention in regards to Canadian pension fund bidding for the Auckland Airport 40% shares.
Why intervention is needed for Telecom and not for Auckland.
Post a Comment