Saudis pump $200bn into rust belt
Source: The Times of London
Trump arrives in Riyadh at start of first major foreign trip
Richard Spencer, Riyadh
May 20 2017, 12:00pm,
The Times
Saudi Arabia is offering President Trump investment in Americas decaying infrastructure and industry worth tens of billions of dollars as a sweetener for arms deals and better relations between the two countries.
Mohammed bin Salman, the deputy crown prince and in effect the prime minister, made the offer during a visit to Washington this year, sources said. Mr Trump is hoping that the money will be invested in the rust belt states whose support helped to propel him to the White House.
Estimates of the sums involved range from $40 billion to $200 billion in addition to current and future arms deals valued at $300 billion, which will be announced during Mr Trumps visit to Saudi Arabia, which began today.
The president touched down in Riyadh this morning, exiting Air Force One onto the red carpet with his wife Melania to be met by King Salman.
Read more: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/saudis-pump-200bn-into-rust-belt-in-new-american-alliance-ms2zjltbl
bucolic_frolic
(43,311 posts)We are being financially enslaved by this Airhead
sandensea
(21,674 posts)And yes: whatever investment does come out of this (if any) is likely to be of the predatory type you described above, and come with yooge strings attached.
theaocp
(4,245 posts)Get the fucking tax money from our own 1%. What absolute horseshit.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)common, but I'm wondering how right wing media would spin this? Bury? They could hardly brag about this "great victory" to a xenophobic base, after all. But Rump might well.
BeyondGeography
(39,382 posts)Has a ring to it.
jmowreader
(50,565 posts)beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)saudis just don't give their billions away...
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)Saudi Arabia is offering President Trump investment in Americas decaying infrastructure and industry worth tens of billions of dollars as a sweetener for arms deals and better relations between the two countries.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)Hassin Bin Sober
(26,344 posts)I'm in Chicago. We deal with the Abu Dubai Sovereign Wealth Fund (and other hedge funds) investment in our infrastructure every day.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)which doesn't sound good. Infrastructure investment has a good sound, though...? Has there been benefit accruing to Chicago, or just exploitation with money flowing out?
BumRushDaShow
(129,543 posts)(article from a little over a year ago)
<...>
IPOing Aramco and transferring its shares to PIF (the Public Investment Fund) will technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue, not oil, the prince said in a five-hour interview this week at the royal compound in Riyadh. What is left now is to diversify investments. So within 20 years, we will be an economy or state that doesnt depend mainly on oil.
Largest U.S. refinery now belongs to Saudi Arabia
In addition to being the kingdom's Defense Minister and second in line to the throne, the prince oversees the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, which controls the Public Investment Fund. The fund currently hold stakes in Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the worlds second-biggest chemicals manufacturer, and National Commercial Bank, the kingdoms largest lender.The fund is expected to grow to more than $2 trillion and will increase its foreign investments from about 5% now to 50% by 2020.
Back in July, the kingdom's fund spent $10 billion to invest in the Russian Direct Investment Fund and $1.1 billion to acquire a 38% stake in South Koreas Posco Engineering & Construction Co.
This move and a planned National Transformation Plan aimed at increasing non-oil revenue to be announced within a month, come amid a global rash in oil prices. We are working on increasing the efficiency of spending, Prince Mohammed said. So I dont believe that we have a real problem when it comes to low oil prices.
http://www.freep.com/story/money/2016/04/01/report-saudi-arabia-plans-aramco-ipo/82508522/
Some recent info here: http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/dealmaker-trump-will-be-busy-in-saudi-arabia
Edit to note - If Saudi follows through with getting out of the oil business (which is what is suggested here), then Russia and the U.S. can step in to fill that gap --Because.China.
logosoco
(3,208 posts)as a great "win". I wonder when they will figure out this most likely means toll roads and the money won't be going to the state DOT.
thesquanderer
(11,993 posts)...if the Saudis are willing to pay higher prices for American arms, there is something to be said for that extra money going to the U.S. public good, rather than into the pockets of the likes of Lockheed's executives and their shareholders.
yardwork
(61,712 posts)What is the mechanism for "investing in the rust belt?"
Let's see if that happens.
Marcuse
(7,519 posts)riversedge
(70,310 posts)beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)the Saudis and the Russians....a win-win for Putin for sure
TexasBushwhacker
(20,219 posts)Good luck to the Republicans trying to spin that as a positive while we have to pay more at the pump and the grocery store.
JHB
(37,162 posts)...and see privatization schemes like the Chicago parking meter fiasco as much more likely.
***
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https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/infrastructure-projects-p3-contracts-chicago-parking
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,344 posts)The doubling of the already 500% increase in parking rates goes to, you guessed it, the hedge fund parking meter company to help pay back the charge backs the city owes for meter closures.
It's like we were turned over to the juice loan collectors in a mob bust out.
Water main break? Fuck you, pay me.
Natural disaster? Fuck you, pay me.
Street fair? Fuck you, pay me.
Btw, Mayor Daley landed him on of those no show consulting gigs with the law firm that handled the deal.
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)That will reap the benefits. They'll just outsource the work to third world countries.
haele
(12,681 posts)Word in the DoD contractor community is already that all manufacturing for the Saudi purchase will be overseas. We knew that a few years ago when Pres. Obama's administration nixed the deal on humanitarian reasons.
I'll be surprised if 5% of that money will end up taxable revenue in the U.S. Most of whatever might touch U.S. soil will be in the form of some administrative costs and executive pay.
Haele
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)republicans willing to do anything to make moneybucks.
WellDarn
(255 posts)Just popped into my head
"The Twin Towers burning . . . people jumping . . . video of Trump shaking hand with the Saudi rulers . . . fade to black . . . All caps 'BLOOD MONEY'" in white . . . end.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,045 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Well, I guess they know oil will no longer be a weapon soon enough, they need to find something else.
Phoenix61
(17,019 posts)Not to dredge up ancient history but 15 of the 9/11 pilots were from Saudi Arabia. Is arming them to the teeth really the best plan?
EX500rider
(10,872 posts)Not really up to us, they can buy weapons from Russia, China, France, Germany...etc....
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)Country playing a pivotal role in the 9/11 attack.
Crickets.
packman
(16,296 posts)Taking a job from an Ahrab? I can see a lot of conflicted folk twisting themselves into knots about this.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)DK504
(3,847 posts)about a takeover of their states. I'm sure they will think they are going to blow up all the houses.
Lookie, we're showing the world we refuse to take care of our own problems, despite the fact we could rebuild the world if we just taxed corporations and the 1%.
Wonder how much we could rebuild if it weren't for "The Wall."
vkkv
(3,384 posts)jpak
(41,760 posts)Spirit of '76
etc.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)if all the Muslim haters got bailed out by the Muslims.
harun
(11,348 posts)elleng
(131,143 posts)whose support helped to propel him to the White House.'
I 'hope' too.
'As President Trump begins his first presidential trip abroad in Saudi Arabia, an investment company run by one of his top supporters, the billionaire Stephen A. Schwarzman, has secured an enormous investment from the Middle Eastern kingdom.
The company, Blackstone, which Mr. Schwarzman helped found, said on Saturday that Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund had committed $20 billion to a new investment fund aimed at infrastructure projects, primarily in the United States.
The commitment is about half of the capital Blackstone plans to raise for the fund. All told, including potential borrowed money, the new fund could invest more than $100 billion in infrastructure projects, the company said in its statement.
The fund was one of several business deals between an American company and Saudi Arabia announced after Mr. Trumps arrival. At a ceremony in Riyadh on Saturday, General Electric said it had agreements for $15 billion worth of projects.
And the Trump administration helped line up $110 billion worth of arms deals, negotiations in which senior officials played prominent roles. For instance, Jared Kushner, Mr. Trumps son-in-law, personally called the chief executive of Lockheed Martin to cut the price of a radar system.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/business/dealbook/saudi-arabia-to-invest-20-billion-in-infrastructure-mostly-in-us.httml?
no_hypocrisy
(46,202 posts)Or will there be enough money to include Iowa?
orangecrush
(19,624 posts)To the Saudi Royalty!!!
And I thought the orange turd had no sense of humor....
JI7
(89,276 posts)qwlauren35
(6,150 posts)it could go into roads, bridges, electric utilities. It could go into building public schools, putting up health clinics. There are major possibilities. These are the jobs that Trump promised. And if he delivers, it will be a major coup, because the US government doesn't have to pay for it.
This has the possibility of a win-win-win. A win for Trump in public approval from his base, a win for Saudi Arabia in a massive arms deal, and a win for the American people in the Rust Belt.
I see it happening, I see his base loving him for it, and I see the Democrats losing their ability to win a coup in 2018.
haele
(12,681 posts)Despite the claims of a high-paying jobs and better communities, after the initial honeymoon period in the push to establish the ownership, most foreign investment ownership results in a majority of unprotected lower wage jobs with few benefits, high use fees, problems with maintaining the infrastructure.
What's especially troubling is that there's very little legal recourse when there's a conflict with local regulations, health, or safety issues are the norm when foreign entities "invest" in local U.S. infrastructure - in fact, in most cases I've read about, it's worse than local privatization.
https://www.thetruckersreport.com/foreign-company-now-owns-six-major-us-tolls-roads/
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/terrihall/2013/10/first-foreign-owned-toll-road-in-texas-downgraded-to-junk-bond-status/
http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/11/18/the-indiana-toll-road-and-the-dark-side-of-privately-financed-highways/
And this is not just a problem with foreign takeover of public infrastructure. This happens with privatization all the time.
The problem stems from Infrastructure as an "Investment", not Infrastructure as a taxpayer service project. There is no "long term" community pride or reputation here. It's all about the return.
The private investors - both the Saudis and the Global corporations are only putting up the money because they expect they're going to be getting back all that money to "build something" - and significantly more. And it doesn't matter what the locals or U.S. taxpayers actually need. It's not about improving the lives of American citizens.
It's about how much money the investors can make off all these desperate and irrational "heathens" who have no say in the foreign government or corporate organizations by taking their public resources and selling it back to them in a captive market. All the investors have to do is make the state governments happy enough to continue to let them operate with the least amount of regulation and restrictions.
The locals will still have no other option but to use what these privateers offer them, unless they can afford to live off the grid and don't travel by public roads.
https://hbr.org/1995/09/is-foreign-infrastructure-investment-still-risky
But of course, you can't point that out to the shallow get rich quick types and people who will vote against their own best interests because of emails or a provincial GGG mindset who can get distracted by the last shiny to be dangled in front of them.
Haele
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)for 99 years.
The populace raised its collective voice and made Big Ed fuhgeddaboutit.
qwlauren35
(6,150 posts)Silly me, I was thinking that it would be charitable in return for the arms.
I agree - when the purpose of an infrastructure improvement is for profit, the American people lose.
Demtexan
(1,588 posts)Trump sold out voters to them.
I see toll roads for starters.
Goprox
(78 posts)It's called linkbait.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Can't wait to drive over Riyadh Toll Bridge in Michigan.