Fire sale on the USA. The net result of his administration makes the point quite clearly: whenever Bush talked about the "ownership society," he was ultimately referring to wealthy foreigners buying up the United States (
InvestmentNews):
January 12, 2009
Foreign investors plan to spend significantly more money on U.S. real estate in 2009 than they did last year.
A study released today by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate showed that equity investors plan to boost real estate investment activity by 73% in the United States and 40% globally.
“Our investor members have expressed a growing confidence and interest in U.S. real estate,” James A. Fetgatter, chief executive of the Washington-based association, said in a statement. “Their investment plans for 2009 for the U.S. resemble the flight to quality that is creating the demand for U.S. Treasuries.”
The 17th annual study surveyed about 200 of the association’s members, who collectively hold $1 trillion worth of real estate.
Washington topped the list of cities in which foreign investors are most likely to park their cash this year. [...]
The study showed that half of investors’ favorite cities for investing in real estate this year are in the United States.
This differs from a year ago, when five of the top 10 cities were in Asia.
The top U.S. cities were Washington, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston.
Investors named apartments as their favorite property type. That was followed by office, industrial, retail and hotel properties.
Also, most investors said that they are having little trouble finding attractive U.S. real estate opportunities.
Heckuva job, Greenspan, Gramm, and Bushie!