Zero Hedge — Pentagon Fears Foreigners Will Buy Control Of US Defense Firms Amid Coronavirus Volatility

The worm turns.

Zero Hedge
Pentagon Fears Foreigners Will Buy Control Of US Defense Firms Amid Coronavirus Volatility
Tyler Durden

US Is the Single Biggest Foreign Investor in Russia’s Economy — Ben Aris

Longish and detailed backgrounder on FDI in Russian economy, not just US.

Checkpoint Asia
US Is the Single Biggest Foreign Investor in Russia’s Economy

Ben Aris, BNE

Joseph P. Joyce — The Change in the U.S. Direct Investment Position

The U.S. has long held an external balance sheet that is comprised of foreign equity assets, mainly in the form of direct investment (DI), and liabilities held abroad primarily in the form of debt, including U.S. Treasury securities. This composition is known “long equity, short debt.” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas of UC-Berkeley and Hélène Rey of the London Business School claim that this allocation has allowed the U.S. to serve as the “world’s venture capitalist,” issuing short-term debt in order to invest in high-yield assets. But the U.S. direct investment position has changed from a surplus to a deficit, with uncertain consequences for the international monetary system.

There is more than one reason for the change....

Angry Bear
The Change in the U.S. Direct Investment Position

Joseph P. Joyce | Professor of Economics at Wellesley College, where he holds the M. Margaret Ball Chair of International Relations. He served as the first Faculty Director of the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs.

Don Quijones — Global Foreign Direct Investment Flows Collapse

More and more companies either choose not to invest in other countries or are prevented from doing so.

Global foreign direct investment flows plunged by another 27% in 2018 — after having already plunged 16% in 2017 — to just $1.1 trillion, the equivalent of 1.3% of global GDP, the lowest ratio since 1999, according tonew data released by the OECD. It was the third consecutive annual plunge in global FDI flows, as more and more companies either choose not to invest in businesses or assets in other countries or are prevented from doing so.

At the peak in 2015, before the trade wars began, before the Brexit vote happened, and before China began cracking down on the capital outflows that had fueled big-ticket purchases of strategic companies across the globe as well as surging asset prices in multiple jurisdictions, global FDI flows totaled $1.92 trillion and represented around 2.5% of global GDP. FDI has since collapsed by 43%....

Globalization hits a speed bump.

Raging Bull-Shit
Global Foreign Direct Investment Flows Collapse
Don Quijones

Xinhua — Chinese direct investment in U.S. plunges in 2017 due to policy shifts

Chinese direct investment in the United States fell by more than 35 percent in 2017 due to policy shifts in both countries, according to a new report jointly released on Tuesday by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR) and the Rhodium Group... 

Ecns
Chinese direct investment in U.S. plunges in 2017 due to policy shifts

Xinhua

Wolf Richter — Trump’s Order Stops ALL Foreign Takeovers of Large US Tech Companies

President Trump signed a far-ranging executive order late Monday that blocked the $117-billion hostile takeover of Qualcomm by Broadcom, a Singapore-based company, on concerns over national security. This crushed any hopes that remained in some corners of seeing what would have been the largest tech deal ever. But the order was far broader: It blocked all such deals....

Wolf Street
Trump’s Order Stops ALL Foreign Takeovers of Large US Tech Companies
Wolf Richter

Matthew Raphael Johnson — “There are No Rogue States” – China's Vision for Eurasian Investment in Africa

This post compares and contrasts the Chinese model for development with the Western liberal model, arguing for the superiority of the Chinese model. However, one chooses to rank them, these models are coming into conflict and it is useful to understand how and why.

Geopolitica
“There are No Rogue States” – China's Vision for Eurasian Investment in Africa
Matthew Raphael Johnson

Xinhua — US urged to open the door wider to China's investment

"There is much distrust and misunderstanding about Chinese investments and of China in the US market," Xu said.

China.org.cn
US urged to open the door wider to China's investment

Xinhua

Xinhua — China-U.S. two-way FDI reaches all-time high in 2016

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between China and the U.S. passed 60 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, more than any other year in history, said a report jointly released by the Rhodium Group and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations (NCUSCR).
"U.S.-China two-way FDI reached an all-time high in 2016, elevating the importance of this facet of the bilateral economic relationship," said the report.

"What used to be a one-way street - with money flowing predominantly from the United States to China - is now a two-way highway with tens of billions of dollars in annual FDI flowing in each direction," it added.

The report said the cumulative value of U.S. FDI transactions in China reached over 240 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2016, while the cumulative Chinese FDI in the U.S. totaled 110 billion U.S. dollars during the same period....

Ecns.cn
China-U.S. two-way FDI reaches all-time high in 2016

Xinhua

Sputnik — China Surpasses US in Total Foreign Investment

For the first time in history, China has surpassed the United States in total foreign investment. Moreover, Chinese companies' interests have expanded beyond energy and other natural resources. Analysts explain that this may be an indication that the country's economy is shifting from export-oriented growth to a focus on domestic demand.…

Sputnik International
Drooping Eagle, Soaring Dragon? China Surpasses US in Total Foreign Investment

Sputnik — China's Attempt to Purchase Opera Prompts Wagnerian Response From West

American regulators apparently said "no" to China fully buying the Norwegian internet browser company Opera Software in order to prevent Beijing from gaining clout in the market, competitive intelligence expert Yevgeny Yushchyuk told Sputnik….

Sputnik

China's Attempt to Purchase Opera Prompts Wagnerian Response From West

Xinhua — China remains top buyer of US real estate

A total of $27.3 billion, 29,195 houses – What these numbers are saying is China has been the largest buyer of US homes for the second year in a row.

Increasing activity has brought both the dollar volume and number of units sold to levels far exceeding that of any other foreign demographic.

In terms of dollar volume, the Chinese bought 26.7 percent of the total amount of residential property sold, notes Lawrence Yun, chief economist at US National Association of Realtors as quoted by news media on Saturday.

In Profile of International activity in US Residential Real Estate, market researchers at NAR outlined some major trends in Chinese activity in the US market.

Among the major foreign buyers, Chinese buyers tend to purchase residential properties in central cities and suburban areas with relatively higher property prices. The average purchase price among Chinese buyers reached $936,615, almost three times of that of Canadians, the second most generous buyer group.

About a third of Chinese buyers purchased residential property in California, New York, Texas, Washington, and New Jersey. With roughly 39 percent of Chinese buyers buying in states other than these top five states, they are among the more broadly geographically distributed foreign buyer groups.

Ten percent of Chinese buyers made purchase in the city of New York alone. Other buyer groups tend to purchase properties for vacation purposes, while New York drew Asian buyers most likely for reasons related to geographic proximity, cultural similarities, and job opportunities.

Buyers from China were more likely to purchase residential property for the use of a child studying at a US university. 13 percent of Chinese buyers purchased the property for the use of a student.

Foreign buyers from China were more likely to pay cash. Fifty percent of reported transactions were all-cash sales, while among Chinese this number is 71 percent; only 20 percent obtained mortgage from US sources.

Asia Society and Rosen Consulting Group have also published a joint report on Chinese investment in US real estate, suggesting that Chinese investors have spent $110 billion on US properties in the past five years. The number is seen growing by 20 percent every year and may reach $218 billion as of 2020, the report concludes.

A Chinese student purchased the house across the street — 5 bedrooms and a pool. The house was on the market for some time since the owners, a retired couple whose family was grown and left the nest, wanted top dollar and were willing to wait, even though they had already moved out.

China.org.cn
China remains top buyer of US real estate

Xinhua

Nils Herger and Steve McCorriston — FDI ‘waves’ and cross-border acquisitions

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has grown markedly in the world economy since the 1970s. However, the underlying growth has occasionally been punctuated by relatively short-lived reductions in FDI, giving rise to the ‘wave-like’ pattern exhibited in Figure 1. In explaining the motives driving FDI, economists have typically distinguished between horizontal and vertical strategies, the former being driven by market-seeking considerations, and the latter by the desire to access inputs such as cheap labour. Understanding the different motives of FDI is important for addressing policy issues, identifying how FDI and international trade are potentially related, as well as assessing the spillovers that might be associated with FDI. Yet, attempts to uncover the distribution of the different FDI strategies have long been hindered by access to suitable data....

Vox.eu
FDI ‘waves’ and cross-border acquisitions
Nils Herger and Steve McCorriston

Constantin Gurdgiev — Russian FDI Flows in 2014

Per data reported by BOFIT, FDI inflows into Russia fell below 2009 crisis period in 2014. Average 2007-20013 inflows stood at USD55 billion, falling to USD37 billion in 2009. In 2014, FDI inflows totalled only USD21 billion. As expected, net FDI inflows became negative in 2H 2014.

FDI outflows totalled USD56 billion in 2014, in line with the average for 2007-2013 period and relatively steady over all four quarters of 2014.

True Economics

Russian FDI Flows in 2014
Constantin Gurdgiev

Also

Russian Economy in a Chart: It's Structural...

Sputnik — EU Sanctions Open Door to Russian Market for Asia, BRICS

Isolating Russia not going according to plan. Europe being cut out.

Sputnik

EU Sanctions Open Door to Russian Market for Asia, BRICS

Yu Yongding — China’s Flawed Balance-of-Payments Position

The balance-of-payments figures that China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) released in April should have triggered serious concern, if not alarm. The data adjusted China’s investment-income deficit for 2011 from $26.8 billion to $85.3 billion – a massive revision that casts doubt on the reliability of China’s balance-of-payments statistics and exposes a flaw in the economy’s growth path. But few people seem to care.
According to SAFE, as of February 2012, China had accumulated $4.7 trillion in foreign assets through purchases of United States government securities and other investments, and more than $2.9 trillion in foreign liabilities through foreign direct investment (FDI) and borrowing. This puts China’s net foreign assets at roughly $1.8 trillion.
But, despite China’s position as one of the world’s largest creditors, its net investment-income balance is deeply negative. In fact, China has run investment-account deficits for six of the last nine years, with preliminary statistics suggesting a deficit of $57.4 billion in 2012.

Project Syndicate
China’s Flawed Balance-of-Payments Position
Yu Yongding was President of the China Society of World Economics and Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Caijing — China Replaces U.S. to Be World’s Largest Investment Recipient in First Half of 2012

China replaces the U.S. to be the world’s largest recipient of foreign investment in the first half of 2012 despite a decline in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, according to the Global Investment Trends Monitor released at Thursday’s UN Conference on Trade and Development....

Global foreign direct investment inflows reached US$668 billion in the first half of 2012, a decline of 8 per cent compared with the same period of 2011, according to the report.

The decline in global FDI inflows was due to increased uncertainty in the global economy, marked by fears of an exacerbation of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and a slowdown of growth in major emerging market economies, the report explained.

The US$61 billion fall was mainly caused by a decline of US$37 billion in inflows to the United States and a US$23 billion fall in inflows to BRIC countries – Brazil, Russian Federation, India and China.

Caijing
China Replaces U.S. to Be World’s Largest Investment Recipient in First Half of 2012