America on Sale

[wildfirepower]

Our cash-strapped country is auctioning off its highways, ports and even parking meters, finding eager buyers in the Middle East

"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?"

As it turns out, the Pennsylvania Turnpike deal almost went through, only to be killed by the state legislature, but there were others just like it that did go through, most notably the sale of all the parking meters in Chicago to a consortium that included the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, from the United Arab Emirates.

There were others: A toll highway in Indiana. The Chicago Skyway. A stretch of highway in Florida. Parking meters in Nashville, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and other cities. A port in Virginia. And a whole bevy of Californian public infrastructure projects, all either already leased or set to be leased for fifty or seventy-five years or more in exchange for one-off lump sum payments of a few billion bucks at best, usually just to help patch a hole or two in a single budget year.

America is quite literally for sale, at rock-bottom prices, and the buyers increasingly are the very people who scored big in the oil bubble. Thanks to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley and the other investment banks that artificially jacked up the price of gasoline over the course of the last decade, Americans delivered a lot of their excess cash into the coffers of sovereign wealth funds like the Qatar Investment Authority, the Libyan Investment Authority, Saudi Arabia's SAMA Foreign Holdings, and the UAE's Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/222206?RS_show_page=0

[sevin]

Dang, I remember Gerald Celente saying over a year ago that in 2010 there would be a "Buy America" trend. This is exactly what he described.

[roho76]

Well it sounds like a good idea for the people who owned them. Why hold onto a toll road when everybody in this country wont be able to afford to use them soon anyways? And who cares who owns them especially the Arabs? Will they be able to defend ownership of them once our economy collapses? Doubtfull. What I see yapping is little holes being cut in the fences that line the side of the highway and people making their own entrance/exit way disregarding the toll booths.

I understand what your saying. It sucks. But I wouldn't expect anything less of our government and corporate America. I'm only surprised that they didn't already sell these things off to foriegn countries. What's taking them so long? When this country collapses economically, and it most certainly will, nobody will care who owns them except UN soldiers and by that time "It's on" anyways.

My suggestion to you is to get yourself some bolt cutters.

[roho76]

I also wanted to add. I just got back from a vacation in Cape Cod and on the way home we wanted to avoid NY so we took 80 through PA and that was the most beautiful trip I have taken so far. There were points in the mountains that were so breath taking it reminds me why I'm glad I live in America the Beautiful. Hopefully they didn't buy the picturesque landscape too.

[teacherone]

thus the repatriation of dollar foreign currency holdings begins bringing us ever closer to hyperinflation.

[wildfirepower]

There were talks of Clinton giving Iminent Domain to China.

[denison]

would it better if we were selling it off to eager buyers in Israel? I though libertarians didn't believe in "borders"? freedom of movement, anyone?

[ravedown]

this sounds like good news. if Arabs want to pay to maintain some freeways and parking meters, good for them.

[KCIndy]

I'm all in favor of privatization, and IMHO it can be a great thing if done correctly. But when it's done incorrectly? :rolleyes: Well, I live in Indiana, and a few years back governor Mitch Daniels basically "sold" the toll road (I-80) in the state to a corporate group which will run it for profit.

The terms of the lease (as the state called it) were utterly horrible.

Indiana got a bit more than three billion bucks out of the deal, but the private consortium got an unbreakable lock on the toll road for 75 years, with no "competing" roads able to be built under this contract. And there's basically no way for the state to break the contract.

If I had been setting up the contract, it would have been on a renewable basis, say every 20 years, and that "no competing roads" clause would never have been in there. Competition is the basis of the free market, and if this firm was truly providing a superior product (or experience) then they shouldn't have anything to fear from some competition.

I'm guessing that the three billion will be p*ssed away within a decade, and then the state government will start bleating about how they aren't making any money off the toll road anymore, and they have no choice but to raise taxes.... of course by then, Daniels won't be governor any more (he wants to make a White House bid in '12) so it won't be his problem.... :rolleyes:

[sratiug]

I'm all in favor of privatization, and IMHO it can be a great thing if done correctly. But when it's done incorrectly? :rolleyes: Well, I live in Indiana, and a few years back governor Mitch Daniels basically "sold" the toll road (I-80) in the state to a corporate group which will run it for profit.

The terms of the lease (as the state called it) were utterly horrible.

Indiana got a bit more than three billion bucks out of the deal, but the private consortium got an unbreakable lock on the toll road for 75 years, with no "competing" roads able to be built under this contract. And there's basically no way for the state to break the contract.

If I had been setting up the contract, it would have been on a renewable basis, say every 20 years, and that "no competing roads" clause would never have been in there. Competition is the basis of the free market, and if this firm was truly providing a superior product (or experience) then they shouldn't have anything to fear from some competition.

I'm guessing that the three billion will be p*ssed away within a decade, and then the state government will start bleating about how they aren't making any money off the toll road anymore, and they have no choice but to raise taxes.... of course by then, Daniels won't be governor any more (he wants to make a White House bid in '12) so it won't be his problem.... :rolleyes:

They can always take it back through imminent domain.

Privatizing is bullshit. If it can be privatized it can be eliminated.

[ravedown]

I'm all in favor of privatization, and IMHO it can be a great thing if done correctly. But when it's done incorrectly? :rolleyes: Well, I live in Indiana, and a few years back governor Mitch Daniels basically "sold" the toll road (I-80) in the state to a corporate group which will run it for profit.

The terms of the lease (as the state called it) were utterly horrible.

Indiana got a bit more than three billion bucks out of the deal, but the private consortium got an unbreakable lock on the toll road for 75 years, with no "competing" roads able to be built under this contract. And there's basically no way for the state to break the contract.

If I had been setting up the contract, it would have been on a renewable basis, say every 20 years, and that "no competing roads" clause would never have been in there. Competition is the basis of the free market, and if this firm was truly providing a superior product (or experience) then they shouldn't have anything to fear from some competition.

I'm guessing that the three billion will be p*ssed away within a decade, and then the state government will start bleating about how they aren't making any money off the toll road anymore, and they have no choice but to raise taxes.... of course by then, Daniels won't be governor any more (he wants to make a White House bid in '12) so it won't be his problem.... :rolleyes:

sheesh...how do they always get it wrong. this clearly appears to be a political favor to a corporation that probably contributed to the governors election or something similar. i would have written in a 10 year review at the very least...whats the incentive to maintain the road if you get it for 75 years?
also- when the road contract was arranged- i imagine the residents of indiana all received rebate checks on the money saved by privatizing the road?
jk, of course they didn't.

[ravedown]

They can always take it back through imminent domain.

Privatizing is bullshit. If it can be privatized it can be eliminated.

imminent domain? very funny.

[BFranklin]

This is business and just transaction of money...at the end of the day we own what we want because we have the biggest guns.