So this is the New way of doing business in the United States for some people?
The golden share gives the US government veto authority over a raft of corporate decisions, from idling plants to cutting production capacity and moving jobs overseas, as previewed in a weekend social media post by the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.
So, Nippon can make a profit, as long as they are a âgood doobieâ and do what they are told.
Steve
Hmmm what do they call it when the Government controls resources (public lands for sale) and production (private companies controlled by the government? They call that Communism. We have officially landed into the state of Communism. So when you hear people yelling they do not want something be careful, they might just be projecting.
Seems the defining characteristic of âCommunismâ is state ownership of everything. In âFascismâ, private ownership of the means of production is allowed, but only as long as the owners conform with government dictate.
Fascist governments encouraged the pursuit of private profit and offered many benefits to large businesses, but they demanded in return that all economic activity should serve the national interest
(speculative) Regime to Nippon âall good opportunities must be offered to white people.â
Steve
I have a take that I have not seen in âthe mediaâ yet. So wondering if I am wrong and why.
Wouldnât this be a huge national security issue if the US doesnât have some 100% local ability to create steel? I would think weâd have some difficulty making ANY thing structural or mechanical in a time of war if we do not control some part of the steel infrastructure?
Everyone was up in arms back when foreign companies were buying up real estate. Previous there were things like blocking investment in chip companies, blocking investment in power grids, US port infrastructure, etc.
There seems to be a whole govât group set up for monitoring this -
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is a government body with the power to block foreign investments in U.S. companies.
This seems like a direct slap in the face of (group using an M, and an A, and a G, and another A - seems to be blocked in posts) isolationist ideals and I think it sounds worrisome in my Centrist view because the current guy in charge has NEVER run a successful company. This is not good.
Yes, that is a legitimate concern. Any time a country canât feed itself, fuel itself, or finance itself, it is dependent on the goodwill of others. Of course, that obvious concern was ignored, in the quest to find the cheapest stuff on earth, as advocated and legitimized by Milton Friedman, 45 years ago. So, USian industry was hollowed out.
If the US didnât have such a huge trade deficit, foreign nationals would not have such massive amounts of US Dollars looking for investments.
Of course, the other side of the coin is lazy/incompetent/greedy USian âJCsâ that run their own company into the ground, to line their own pockets. A honcho at US Steel gave a talk for one of my grad school classes, in 1981. After the talk, the prof that ran the class was laffing at US Steel, for itâs refusal to invest in modern, efficient, plant and equipment. Instead, US Steel was plodding along with obsolete plants, while crying for government protection.
Steve
I long for the day when AI can be trained on a single person (so long as there is sufficient material) and then asked to âthinkâ about the state of current day affairs, rather than what existed at the time.
Friedman was a proponent of âsure, get the cheapest, even if you hollow out your own countryâ on the naive assumption that others would respond the same way, and no geopolitical forces would intrude. That is far, far away from our current scenario (and yes, I would say not being able to produce steel is a strategic and existential threat. Then again so is our inability to produce our own rare earths. And flat display screens. And lots of stuff.)
Anyway, Iâd like to see what an AI âsimulbrainâ of Friedman would say about the world today. Iâd like to see the same thing with an AI trained on the thoughts and writings of the Founding Fathers, and ask what they think about, say, the 2nd Amendment, or the imbalance between the three branches of government, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
All this massive expansion of Executive Power seems sooooo short sighted. The Reps will be crying bloody murder when the next Dem POTUS uses 'Golden Share" to install climate advocates on a BOD.
My takeaway from him, in the Charley Rose interview, is that he figured the trading partners who accepted dollars for their goods, had no choice but use them to buy Treasuries. So, the US can then use those borrowed back dollars to buy more imported stuff. An endless circle of paying for stuff with dollars, then borrowing the dollars back, to pay for more stuff, and this circle yank can go on forever.
Steve
Nipponâs agreement to invest and modernize the plant is a major step forward. Keeping the plants competitive saves many jobs.
Govt control of drivers of the economy is the European definition of socialism, not Communism.
So you do not have a problem with having the Government sitting on the boards of companies and having Veto power over all going concerns?
I think thatâs right. Socialism. Remind us who have railed against socialism in government over and over for the past election cycles? I guess itâs OK if done by the current administration since itâs âa major step forward.â
Pete
I am not for this. I do not have a problem with Medicare for all because that is something that everyone needs and the private industry has screwed up our Healthcare system. I also do not have a problem with government controlling our Electrical system. But I think they should leave everything else to private companies. But with this move it opens the door to Government involvement in every company.
The regime jumped that shark some time ago: starting with âDEIâ policies. The media has come in for special âattentionâ with threats to revoke broadcast licenses or denial of access, if the media doesnât get in line and spout the official narrative.
Steve
I do not know the details but it was a negotiated agreement that Nippon found acceptable. Thatâs good enough for me. There probably are some limits to govt power and potential for Nippon to exit the deal.
Mr. Trump has shown that govt has many ways to punish a company that misbehaves. I think all businesses are well aware of that power.
Keep in mind that the US definition of socialism in political circles is completely different. Here it is mostly about redistribution of wealth to assist the poor.
In Europe a much broader security net is expected and widely supported by voters. Very different in the US where how do you pay for those services seems to be the priority.
and that âpriorityâ is to always provide means for corporate and investment funds to âwet their beakâ on every service to be rendered.
The golden share is a crude tool used elsewhere. It hopes to create reinvestment. It will only create as much reinvest as the marginal corporate tax cut allows.