But there are very few other counter-cyclicals. "C'est un scandale !"
And increasingly, outside of agro-alimentary, these are not made in USA. "C'est un scandale !"
Seriously, though, this is an example of European companies buying real companies which make real things - not "financialised assets".
The Anglo disease has not just gutted British industry, but American industry as well. The cheaper dollar is now making this possible. Beer is 95% water, and so it doesn't pay to brew it too far away from the consumer - especial with transport costs soaring. So if you want to have a volume presence in major markets, you have build or buy breweries there - or engage in subcontracting arrangements.
Guinness brews Budweiser and Carlsberg in Ireland for the Irish market for that reason - and has numerous fully owned and contract breweries in other parts of the world where it has volume sales.
Perhaps when the Chinese take over Coca cola US consumers will realise what is going on. Dollar devaluation, combined with the credit crunch, and the undervaluing by the markets of real companies making real things has turned the US industrial scene into the bargain basement of the developed world. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
real companies making real things has turned the US industrial scene into the bargain basement of the developed world.
You along with some other people here are reading too much oversimplified MSM. The US is the world's #3 exporter - but it's mostly high value items in industries that employ a small number of highly paid workers and a medium number of average paid workers. Everyone else is stuck in poor paying service jobs that barely afford a middle class lifestyle, and soon won't do that at all.
If this country had an aggressively egalitarian redistributionist policy, instead of the reverse, the "gutting" (transfer of jobs to other countries) of US industry would hardly be an issue. The main problem confronting American culture would be figuring out what to do with all our free time when we've been taught to believe that hard work gets us into heaven.
you are the media you consume.
MillMan:
The US is the world's #3 exporter
Being ranked behind Germany and China isn't exactly a great statistic for a country as large and wealthy as the US - especially when you consider its near hegemony in areas like military, aerospace, software, and "world" branded products which command prices/margins well above the (often much smaller) competition.
Increasingly American soft power (as exercised through global corporations) requires the exercise of covert or overt American hard power (military presence/political manipulation) to maintain its dominance. A focus on short term gain rather than on longer term R&D, product quality, innovation and collaboration with local enterprises is undermining the US effort. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
Au contraire - the gutting of productive industry isn't exactly a main theme of the Anglo-American MSM - which is much more focused on "high value" branded, technological, intellectual, financial, and service products.
It was a constant theme throughout the 90's - the primary era in which offshoring was occurring. It is still common today, moreso as race/immigration baiting with the rise of fox news and shock journalism. What didn't and doesn't get questioned is the institutional basis for what is happening.
Being ranked behind Germany and China isn't exactly a great statistic for a country as large and wealthy as the US
I often bring this point up because many people say that the US produces nothing, likely meaning very little, in which case the export rating would be far lower.
It's amazing that for all the US' dependance on multilateral bodies (esp. trade) for its economic well-being that it is so bi- and uni-lateral in its own disposition. "C'est un scandale !"
Nixon either. Or Carter, for that matter. "C'est un scandale !"
Maybe the Chinese are different, but hardly anybody seemed to notice 10 years ago when the British took over Burger King (it's now back in American hands again).
