Question for the financially minded

I'm wondering how difficult it might be to research and discover the amount of foreign investment in American interests (stock markets, banking, even maybe privately owned companies).

I just wonder how much of America is actually owned by Americans. I have a suspicion that it is probably less than half. I'm also interested to find out in what types of American service and industry other countries and foreign private entities invest.

Is this information already available? Would it be difficult to find out?

How, where, that kind of stuff...

Thanks

Open up any history book on how the American Revolution was founded and just who owns America will be in plain view.

After the Revolution inflation was something like 1 dollar in silver and gold to $176 Continentals. Every week you held that currency in your pocket it was devalued another notch. Gradually, it was the common American people that paid the Dutch and French loans off. Or did they? That might be something interesting to check out.

Take a look into the Jay's Treaty of 1794 with the British. This thing was made to appease the all powerful English empire while we were busy pulling ourselves up from our bootstraps. We gave them a little something. The war that followed (in about 20 years) caused us to borrow some money too, I'm sure.

As America only learns geography during war time (comeon, how many of you knew where Afghanistan was? Or Serbia? Hell, even Iraq?), America draws external funds during war time. I'd say to find out who owns this country (if anyone), take a look at all the wars since 1776 and see who the foreign backers were. Follow the money trail through the ages. We owe several billions of dollars right now. To whom?

It'll be scary when U.S. corporations create shell accounts overseas to finance current American wars. I hope that's not happening already. A perpetual war machine run by foreign elements is a very scary thing. Has it happened now? Is Halliburton significantly backed by internationals? Take a look and see.

Originally posted by DeltaChaos
I'm wondering how difficult it might be to research and discover the amount of foreign investment in American interests (stock markets, banking, even maybe privately owned companies).

I just wonder how much of America is actually owned by Americans. I have a suspicion that it is probably less than half. I'm also interested to find out in what types of American service and industry other countries and foreign private entities invest.

Is this information already available? Would it be difficult to find out?

How, where, that kind of stuff...

Thanks

For publicly held companies (ones that have stock traded on an exchange), you can use the U.S. Security and Exchange Commissions (SEC) website. The EDGAR searches can provide detailed information on a specific corporation's required disclosure. Ownership is a rather nebulous concept, with layer upon layer of �holdings�, the most critical typically being insider holdings (company officers) and trades, and institutional holdings (retirement funds, and mutual funds) percentage of ownership. This of course only applies to companies publicly traded on U.S. exchanges. Private companies may release company information via press releases, and you would be best served to go to their website. The information contained here will not necessarily follow SEC guidelines, be complete, or even true (although most companies use a respected accounting firm to imply veracity). An excellent research tool for finances is either MSN Money or Yahoo Finance. Look at company �profiles� then �ownership�. Hope this helps.

SEC Website.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (www.bea.gov) and the Worldbank (www.worldbank.org) might have some of the info that you are looking for---particularly current foreign direct investment as a % of GDP. The BEA should have most of the info you are looking for & should be the most up-to-date. You might have to sift through a lot of raw data, though. The Worldbank site is useful for aggregate info, but it tends to be a little outdated.

The IMF website (www.imf.org) is also a good place to find info on foreign investment in the U.S.--they have aggregate data by country also.

This is not as comprehensive as you may like, but it is of assistance.

www.bea.gov...

there is also very scant information at your treasuries department

Forgot this link for you previously;

www.bea.gov...

[edit on 10/15/04 by SomewhereinBetween]

Woah! Thanks.

kptrkptr,

That was deep, man. To do all that would be a serious undertaking. Serious undertakings have a way of making me lose sleep. I was just thinking of current statistics of holdings percentages.

That would be a damn research project to be reckoned with!

Just the Rockefeller/Ford/Saud magnate would be a bear.


MM,

Yeah, what you described is pretty much what I'm thinking, but to get that information, would one have to look at all of the different investments individually to find out who is investing in them? Or could that information be compiled somewhere already. That would be a hell of a research project too, if it had never been done before. That and the fact that there's probably like 10 new IPO's a day, and money in banks shifts so much on a daily basis that it would be almost impossible to get an accurate figure. Then there's currency exchange traders.


Oh, and this, what is the National Debt Cap? How do they figure that out, and why does it rise every year? Doesn't seem very cap-like that way, does it?

Originally posted by lmgnyc
particularly current foreign direct investment as a % of GDP.

This is probably exactly what I'm looking for. Then I could just drill down in detail from there. Thanks a lot.

This is an interesting path of research, Delta. It would be enlightening to know who actually owns what and where. Unfortunately, I think you would find that the VAST majority of holdings would be by multinational corporations and funds, so you would have to investigate thier ownership. You will find they are owned by other multinationals, who in turn are owned by other multinationals... etc etc etc.

I looked into a little of this some time ago, but just ended up frustrated and a little confused. It seemed that no matter where I looked I was running into the same names over and over. The only differences where the relative percentages of ownership in the different concerns.

Might I suggest a different focus for your investigation? You might find it more revealing to find the actual PERSONS who own the top multinationals. I think you will find the same few names on a majority of the boards of directors. My own guess is you would find less than a few hundred names at the top. One person can sit on many different boards at the same time. Even on those of competing companies.

Still, as I found when I looked into this, I think you will spend so much time running in circles you will never really find the real truth.

"This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends.. etc etc"

Regards and good luck!

Originally posted by Montana
Might I suggest a different focus for your investigation? You might find it more revealing to find the actual PERSONS who own the top multinationals. I think you will find the same few names on a majority of the boards of directors. My own guess is you would find less than a few hundred names at the top. One person can sit on many different boards at the same time. Even on those of competing companies.

This is a really good idea for a couple of reasons. To actually identify the individuals owning whatnot would probably be a better indicator of who really owns America.

Not only that, but it would eventually tie in nicely with my previous research project concerning the fiduciary/political "Revolving Door", which has been dead for some time now. It really was a boring subject, but an important one, I believe.

Thanks for your input, Montana