You can see all 8 pieces at the 1912 space inside Sneakersnstuff in Stockholm, Sweden. I’m just curious if he makes a fresh one every … minutes.
SOURCE
GROUNDBREAKING DILDO ALERT!
A British company has created the first voice-activated vibrator, a device that'll have have women across the world shouting a collective 'Oh yes'.The sex toy, which is already on sale in the country, reacts to commands from the user telling it to go faster, slower or even harder.
But that's not all, women can even personalise the instructions by programming nine functions with their own keywords, eg. "Oh yes" rather than "faster."
Many are predicting it'll be a big hit with the ladies. The UK's 'Sun' has one such expert commenting that: "Communication is key to a healthy relationship, and there's no relationship healthier than that of a woman and her vibrator."
"The fact that she can now make demands and this can respond really should have men worried. If they don't want to be made redundant they need to sit up and listen."
The device costs approximately $150.
ARTIST OF THE FUCKING MONTH: DRAG-ON
I SPENT THE PAST MONTHS TRYING TO REMEMBER WHO THE ''SPLIT THESE BARS'' CREATOR WAS AND UNTIL I TALKED WITH JEAR BEAR I COULDNT FIGURE IT OUT.THE WAIT HAS ENDED. I BOUGHT THE ALBUM SINCE I LOST IT AFTER 9TH GRADE OF HIGHSCHOOL.
HERE HE IS:
DRAG-ON OF RUFF RYDERS
Nike Air Flight Lite oooooweeeee
I love me some Nikes
and these is Nike. I prefer the whites
SOURCE
KANYE YOU A GENIUS
MUSIC VIDEO FOR GOOD MORNING (MY PERSONAL FAVORITE OFF THE ALBUM)DIRECTED BY THE DON HIMSELF WITH ANIMATION BY GRADUATION COVER DESIGNER AND GENIUS Takashi Murakami
HILLARY. YOU JUST CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT YOU
HILLARY CLINTON'S SPEECH AT THE DNC.HILLARY IS NOW MY HOMEGIRL
WTHN ILLADELHPIA SALE
WTHN SALE ALL SATURDAY. IF YOU'RE IN PHILLY MAKE MOVES. BEST BOUTIQUE IN THE ILL.
Nike Air Max 90 Burger by Olle Hemmendorff
You can see all 8 pieces at the 1912 space inside Sneakersnstuff in Stockholm, Sweden. I’m just curious if he makes a fresh one every … minutes.
SOURCE
AMERICAN CAPITALISM vs. INTERNET
VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR [click for more articles]Web radio is toast
Analyis RIAA and political cronies sink promising technology
IT NOW LOOKS CERTAIN that the RIAA and its tame political puppets will kill off Web radio.
Despite the fact it is incredibly popular, web radio stations, such as Pandora are about to be slammed with a royalty bill for music which is so crippling that the industry will never walk again.
Despite more than a million listeners daily, Pandora is coming close to pulling the plug because the RIAA and its cronies have ordered that the station pay more than double the per-song performance royalty that other Web radio stations pay to performers and record companies.
This means that Pandora will have to pay 70 per cent of its projected revenue of $25 million to keep the RIAA, or in this case its government-appointed monopoly enforcers Soundexchange, off its back. Small webcasters claim that the demanded dosh would be 100 to 300 per cent of annual revenue, which Soundexchange believes is fair.
While politicians are trying to broker a last minute deal to save the industry it seems that the record companies are saying put up or shut down.
The final curtain for Web radio just goes to show how out of touch the music industry is about where technology is headed. Forcing Pandora to close will lose it about $10 million and close a potential venue for pushing its latest flaccid beat combo tracks.
SoundExchange claims higher royalties for Internet radio because it says musicians deserve a bigger cut of Internet radio profits. But it strangely ignores the fact that if an Internet radio shuts then musicians will not get anything.
SoundExchange claims that it the Internet Radio stations fault that they have not tried to work out ways to make money out of playing the songs. It claims they should try things like better advertising, forgetting that Internet users don't want to see too much of that.
Other fears are that the independent and new musicians will lose an avenue to promote their music. At the moment a musician can stick their content online radio and hope the exposure will attract sales at their web-site.
Now the radio station will have to pay royalties to SoundExchange even though the artist has not signed a contract with the organisation. Any cash SoundExchange collects will not go to the artist but will be saved up to give an RIAA executive a holiday somewhere hot with their secretary.
Soon the only place where Internet radio will survive is on illegal sites in foreign parts where governments are brave enough to ignore the Recording Company mafiaa. Still with the US government on both sides of the house taking bribes from the entertainment business in election year, we can guarantee that such nations will be dubbed terrorists and troops sent in any day now.
CRACKBERRY THIS!
While many of the BlackBerry models out there are arguably more capable than Apple’s iPhone (i.e. GPS integration, not locked to AT&T, etc.), most would agree that the iPhone user interface is a bit more slick. The bPhone theme for BlackBerry lets you have your cake and eat it too.
The theme installs on BlackBerry 8700, Pearl, Curve and 8800 models, assuming you have at least OS 4.2.1 installed.
While the icons and interface aren’t identical to those on the iPhone, they’re similar enough to give you the same general look and feel. Even the battery and signal strength indicators are stylized versions of the iPhone UI elements. For areas where there wasn’t a clear parallel between iPhone and BlackBerry Mac OS X design standards were used (like using a beachball for the “busy” indicator).
Sorry, no multi-touch display or motion sensor is included.
EVERYONES GOING TO HAVE TO WALK A MILE IN EACH OTHERS SHOES SOON ENOUGH...
US whites to become minority by 2042Whites will become a minority in the United States by the year 2042, a decade earlier than pervious projections, US Census Bureau says.
White Americans are expected to make up the majority of the US population until around 2030 when white deaths outpace births, according to the US Census Bureau figures to be released Thursday.
"The white population is older and very much centered around the aging baby boomers who are well past their high fertility years," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
"The future of America is epitomized by the young people today. They are basically the melting pot we are going to see in the future," he continued.
The report suggests that by 2050, 54 percent of some 439 million people living in the United States will be racial minorities.
The population of non-Hispanic whites, who now represent two-thirds of US inhabitants, will see the largest growth and will be around 203 million, the report suggests.
The black segment of the population is projected to reach 66 million, the Asians will be about 41 million, and the Native American and Alaskan population will reach about 9 million.
FUCK THE ECONOMY. MUSTSTAYFRESHTODEATH
DNR Market News: Men's Sales are upDNR is reporting that there is a bright spot amidst all the economic doom and gloom. Men’s apparel sales have actually been pretty good. Driven by the popularity of dressier casualwear, men’s wear sales continue to outpace women’s at retail, and they’re getting stronger as retailers approach the all-important fall selling season. In new figures released by The NPD Group last week, men’s apparel sales rose 2.1 percent to just over $57 billion for the year ended June 30, 2008. In the same time frame, women’s sales fell 3.8 percent. Boys’ wear sales were flat in the period and girls’ apparel sales fell 3.4 percent. “Men’s is growing at a faster rate than women’s,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for the Long Island–based market research group. In the last three months alone, he revealed, men’s sales are up 3.1 percent, compared to women’s, which fell 1.5 percent. “Usually what happens is that dad gets left behind in favor of mom and the kids,” he said. “But what’s happening this year is that mom is the one doing without.” Cohen attributed the uptick in men’s sales to the increasing popularity of dressier sportswear. “Men’s fashion has gotten a little dressier on the casual side, and guys are sporting better sport shirts and slacks, which is a big change in a down economy.” Good news for all our favorite labels.
THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN OUR GOVERNMENT AND BLACKWATER DISGUSTS ME
Blackwater defends team in Baghdad shootingsby Kelli Arena
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Security contractor Blackwater said any guards who acted improperly in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad should be held accountable, but believes its team acted in self-defense, a company spokeswoman said.
Officials familiar with the case said Sunday that six Blackwater contractors have been told they face possible charges in the September 2007 shootings in Baghdad's Nusoor Square.
All six received "target letters" from the Justice Department, which has convened a grand jury to hear evidence in the case, the officials told CNN.
No final decisions have been made, but target letters often signal that criminal charges are in the works.
Iraqi authorities have accused Blackwater guards of killing 17 civilians and wounding nearly 30 in the shootings. But Blackwater has repeatedly said its guards were acting " in response to a hostile threat," company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said in a written statement late Sunday.
"Since the September 16, 2007 incident, we have said that, based on statements of company personnel who were directly involved, we believe those involved acted appropriately," Tyrrell said. "If it is determined that an individual acted improperly, Blackwater would support holding that person accountable. But at this stage, without being able to review evidence collected in an ongoing investigation, we will not prejudge the actions of any individual."
The company has given its full cooperation to the grand jury, which was seated in November, Tyrrell said.
Blackwater said its guards were protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy when they came under fire in Nusoor Square in western Baghdad. But an Iraqi government commission that investigated the shootings accused the guards of firing on civilians indiscriminately. The first U.S. soldiers who arrived on the scene also told investigators they found no evidence the guards were fired upon, sources familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.
An estimated 25,000 private security contractors protect diplomats, reconstruction workers and government officials there.
Security contractors have had immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq
The Nusoor Square shootings led to angry protests from Iraq, as well as demands that the contractors face trial in Iraqi courts.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Security contractor Blackwater said any guards who acted improperly in a deadly 2007 shooting in Baghdad should be held accountable, but believes its team acted in self-defense, a company spokeswoman said.
Officials familiar with the case said Sunday that six Blackwater contractors have been told they face possible charges in the September 2007 shootings in Baghdad's Nusoor Square.
All six received "target letters" from the Justice Department, which has convened a grand jury to hear evidence in the case, the officials told CNN.
No final decisions have been made, but target letters often signal that criminal charges are in the works.
Iraqi authorities have accused Blackwater guards of killing 17 civilians and wounding nearly 30 in the shootings. But Blackwater has repeatedly said its guards were acting " in response to a hostile threat," company spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said in a written statement late Sunday.
"Since the September 16, 2007 incident, we have said that, based on statements of company personnel who were directly involved, we believe those involved acted appropriately," Tyrrell said. "If it is determined that an individual acted improperly, Blackwater would support holding that person accountable. But at this stage, without being able to review evidence collected in an ongoing investigation, we will not prejudge the actions of any individual."
The company has given its full cooperation to the grand jury, which was seated in November, Tyrrell said.
Blackwater said its guards were protecting a U.S. diplomatic convoy when they came under fire in Nusoor Square in western Baghdad. But an Iraqi government commission that investigated the shootings accused the guards of firing on civilians indiscriminately. The first U.S. soldiers who arrived on the scene also told investigators they found no evidence the guards were fired upon, sources familiar with the investigation previously told CNN.
An estimated 25,000 private security contractors protect diplomats, reconstruction workers and government officials there.
Security contractors have had immunity from Iraqi law under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq
The Nusoor Square shootings led to angry protests from Iraq, as well as demands that the contractors face trial in Iraqi courts.
OH MY GOD. LITERALLY.
Survey: Many believe in divine interventionby AP
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- When it comes to saving lives, God trumps doctors for many Americans.
An eye-opening survey reveals widespread belief that divine intervention can revive dying patients. And, researchers said, doctors "need to be prepared to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle."
More than half of randomly surveyed adults -- 57 percent -- said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand that treatment continue.
When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.
"Sensitivity to this belief will promote development of a trusting relationship" with patients and their families, according to researchers. That trust, they said, is needed to help doctors explain objective, overwhelming scientific evidence showing that continued treatment would be worthless.
Pat Loder, a Milford, Michigan, woman whose two young children were killed in a 1991 car crash, said she clung to a belief that God would intervene when things looked hopeless.
"When you're a parent and you're standing over the body of your child who you think is dying ... you have to have that" belief, Loder said.
While doctors should be prepared to deal with those beliefs, they also shouldn't "sugarcoat" the truth about a patient's condition, Loder said.
Being honest in a sensitive way helps family members make excruciating decisions about whether to let dying patients linger, or allow doctors to turn off life-prolonging equipment so that organs can be donated, Loder said.
Loder was driving when a speeding motorcycle slammed into the family's car. Both children were rushed unconscious to hospitals, and Loder says she believes doctors did everything they could. They were not able to revive her 5-year-old son; soon after her 8-year-old daughter was declared brain dead.
She said her beliefs about divine intervention have changed.
"I have become more of a realist," she said. "I know that none of us are immune from anything."
Loder was not involved in the survey, which appears in Monday's Archives of Surgery.
It involved 1,000 U.S. adults randomly selected to answer questions by telephone about their views on end-of-life medical care. They were surveyed in 2005, along with 774 doctors, nurses and other medical workers who responded to mailed questions.
Survey questions mostly dealt with untimely deaths from trauma such as accidents and violence. These deaths are often particularly tough on relatives because they are more unexpected than deaths from lingering illnesses such as cancer, and the patients tend to be younger.
Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, a University of Connecticut surgery professor and trauma chief at Hartford Hospital, was the lead author.
He said trauma treatment advances have allowed patients who previously would have died at the scene to survive longer. That shift means hospital trauma specialists "are much more heavily engaged in the death process," he said.
Jacobs said he frequently meets people who think God will save their dying loved one and who want medical procedures to continue.
"You can't say, 'That's nonsense.' You have to respect that" and try to show them X-rays, CAT scans and other medical evidence indicating death is imminent, he said.
Relatives need to know that "it's not that you don't want a miracle to happen, it's just that is not going to happen today with this patient," he said.
Families occasionally persist, and hospitals have gone to court seeking to stop medical treatment doctors believe is futile, but such cases are quite rare.
Dr. Michael Sise, trauma medical director at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, called the study "a great contribution" to one of the most intense issues doctors face.
Sise, a Catholic doctor working in a Catholic hospital, said miracles don't happen when medical evidence shows death is near.
"That's just not a realistic situation," he said.
Sise recalled a teenager severely injured in a gang beating who died soon afterward at his hospital.
The mother "absolutely did not want to withdraw" medical equipment despite the severity of her child's brain injuries, which ensured she would never wake up, Sise said. "The mom was playing religious tapes in the room, and obviously was very focused on looking for a miracle."
Claudia McCormick, a nurse and trauma program director at Duke University Hospital, said she also has never seen that kind of miracle. But her niece's recovery after being hit by a boat while inner-tubing earlier this year came close.
The boat backed into her and its propeller "caught her in the side of the head. She had no pulse when they pulled her out of the water," McCormick said.
Doctors at the hospital where she was airlifted said "it really doesn't look good." And while it never reached the point where withdrawing lifesaving equipment was discussed, McCormick recalled one of her doctors saying later: '"God has plans for this child. I never thought she'd be here."'
Like many hospitals, Duke uses a team approach to help relatives deal with dying trauma victims, enlisting social workers, grief counselors and chaplains to work with doctors and nurses.
If the family still says, "We just can't shut that machine off, then, you know what, we can't shut that machine off," McCormick said.
"Sometimes," she said, "you might have a family that's having a hard time and it might take another day, and that's OK."
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- When it comes to saving lives, God trumps doctors for many Americans.
An eye-opening survey reveals widespread belief that divine intervention can revive dying patients. And, researchers said, doctors "need to be prepared to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle."
More than half of randomly surveyed adults -- 57 percent -- said God's intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand that treatment continue.
When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.
"Sensitivity to this belief will promote development of a trusting relationship" with patients and their families, according to researchers. That trust, they said, is needed to help doctors explain objective, overwhelming scientific evidence showing that continued treatment would be worthless.
Pat Loder, a Milford, Michigan, woman whose two young children were killed in a 1991 car crash, said she clung to a belief that God would intervene when things looked hopeless.
"When you're a parent and you're standing over the body of your child who you think is dying ... you have to have that" belief, Loder said.
While doctors should be prepared to deal with those beliefs, they also shouldn't "sugarcoat" the truth about a patient's condition, Loder said.
Being honest in a sensitive way helps family members make excruciating decisions about whether to let dying patients linger, or allow doctors to turn off life-prolonging equipment so that organs can be donated, Loder said.
Loder was driving when a speeding motorcycle slammed into the family's car. Both children were rushed unconscious to hospitals, and Loder says she believes doctors did everything they could. They were not able to revive her 5-year-old son; soon after her 8-year-old daughter was declared brain dead.
She said her beliefs about divine intervention have changed.
"I have become more of a realist," she said. "I know that none of us are immune from anything."
Loder was not involved in the survey, which appears in Monday's Archives of Surgery.
It involved 1,000 U.S. adults randomly selected to answer questions by telephone about their views on end-of-life medical care. They were surveyed in 2005, along with 774 doctors, nurses and other medical workers who responded to mailed questions.
Survey questions mostly dealt with untimely deaths from trauma such as accidents and violence. These deaths are often particularly tough on relatives because they are more unexpected than deaths from lingering illnesses such as cancer, and the patients tend to be younger.
Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, a University of Connecticut surgery professor and trauma chief at Hartford Hospital, was the lead author.
He said trauma treatment advances have allowed patients who previously would have died at the scene to survive longer. That shift means hospital trauma specialists "are much more heavily engaged in the death process," he said.
Jacobs said he frequently meets people who think God will save their dying loved one and who want medical procedures to continue.
"You can't say, 'That's nonsense.' You have to respect that" and try to show them X-rays, CAT scans and other medical evidence indicating death is imminent, he said.
Relatives need to know that "it's not that you don't want a miracle to happen, it's just that is not going to happen today with this patient," he said.
Families occasionally persist, and hospitals have gone to court seeking to stop medical treatment doctors believe is futile, but such cases are quite rare.
Dr. Michael Sise, trauma medical director at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, called the study "a great contribution" to one of the most intense issues doctors face.
Sise, a Catholic doctor working in a Catholic hospital, said miracles don't happen when medical evidence shows death is near.
"That's just not a realistic situation," he said.
Sise recalled a teenager severely injured in a gang beating who died soon afterward at his hospital.
The mother "absolutely did not want to withdraw" medical equipment despite the severity of her child's brain injuries, which ensured she would never wake up, Sise said. "The mom was playing religious tapes in the room, and obviously was very focused on looking for a miracle."
Claudia McCormick, a nurse and trauma program director at Duke University Hospital, said she also has never seen that kind of miracle. But her niece's recovery after being hit by a boat while inner-tubing earlier this year came close.
The boat backed into her and its propeller "caught her in the side of the head. She had no pulse when they pulled her out of the water," McCormick said.
Doctors at the hospital where she was airlifted said "it really doesn't look good." And while it never reached the point where withdrawing lifesaving equipment was discussed, McCormick recalled one of her doctors saying later: '"God has plans for this child. I never thought she'd be here."'
Like many hospitals, Duke uses a team approach to help relatives deal with dying trauma victims, enlisting social workers, grief counselors and chaplains to work with doctors and nurses.
If the family still says, "We just can't shut that machine off, then, you know what, we can't shut that machine off," McCormick said.
"Sometimes," she said, "you might have a family that's having a hard time and it might take another day, and that's OK."
GREAT INSIGHTFUL ARTICLE. PLEASE READ...
The Great American Yard SaleBy Jeff Israely/Paris, William Boston/Berlin
When Belgian-based, Brazilian-controlled InBev launched a hostile offer for American beer king Anheuser-Busch last month, xenophobia quickly foamed to the top. Beer drinkers in St. Louis, Mo.--A-B's home--vowed to swear off Bud if those foreigners bought "our" beer.
They'll get over it. A-B's shareholders sure did, considering the $52 billion price tag, which at $70 a share was a 27% premium for a stock that had gone flat. The ruling Busch family ultimately faced up to the fact that the U.S. is for sale, and foreigners are buying. It's everything from the St.-Tropez crowd buying up condos in Palm Beach, Fla., to Asian and Middle Eastern governments sinking billions into U.S. banks to Europeans taking over U.S. pharmaceutical and infrastructure companies. Even tourists are busy using their euros and pounds to snap up iPhones, jeans, shoes and everything else they can stuff into the empty suitcases they carry along for just that purpose, damn them.
The weak dollar and our weakening economy are underwriting the great American yard sale. Investors from Dubai are behind the June purchase of the General Motors Building in New York City for $2.8 billion. The Abu Dhabi Investment Council's sovereign wealth fund bought a 90% stake in the landmark Chrysler Building. General Electric's plastics division is gone, and its famed appliance unit could soon be in the hands of China's Haier or South Korea's LG. Chrysler is hoping to hook up with India's Tata Motors or Italy's Fiat. Switzerland's Roche Holding is offering about $44 billion to acquire the 44% of the biotechnology outfit Genentech that it doesn't own.
The surge of foreign buying spans the economy. Since 2003, foreign-led mergers and acquisitions have increased more than sixfold. Last year there were over 2,000 foreign-led acquisitions of U.S. companies in deals worth some $405.4 billion, twice the value of deals in 2006 and up from $60.8 billion in 2003, according to Thomson Reuters, the financial-information company. Unlike the 1980s panic about the Japanese buying up American landmarks like Rockefeller Center, the response of the financial establishment has been to welcome the latest rush of foreign investment. "The U.S. needs these flows, particularly now," says Bank of America chief market strategist Joseph Quinlan. "It helps create income and jobs for Americans."
That would include Anne Marie Moriarty, a vice president at Corcoran Real Estate Group, who shuttles between New York City and European capitals, tempting foreign buyers with choice American properties. Moriarty is brokering the $16 million sale of an apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood to an Italian buyer, just one of the latest in her run of foreign deals. She says that since March 2007 her residential sales to foreigners have doubled, which is part of the reason that New York's real estate prices have held up in an other wise tanking market. "It's bucking the trend," says Moriarty. Foreigners "see it as a long-term investment. Part of [real estate] for them is owning a piece of New York."
Foreign companies were also the buyers in four of the top U.S. commercial real estate deals in 2007, according to Real Estate Alert newsletter. Rome-based investor Valter Mainetti has been building his Michelangelo Fund around trophy properties, ones that have historical or architectural value beyond their location and square footage. In 2006 he acquired a minority share in New York City's Flatiron Building, a property that today is valued at $180 million. In June he raised his holdings to a 53% share of the famous building. "The Flatiron is expensive, but with the [cheap] dollar, it made sense to increase our share," says Mainetti. "The stability of the New York real estate market is unique. This current crisis will pass, and the dollar will re-establish itself. We are confident."
Foreigners spent $52.2 billion on U.S. commercial real estate in 2007, double the previous year's total, according to Real Capital Analytics, a research group based in New York City that tracks property investment. Dan Fasulo, head of research at Real Capital Analytics, says foreign investment in U.S. property is a relatively recent phenomenon. He compared the current trend to the globalization of stock-market portfolios in the 1980s. "This isn't just about the dollar. The strongest driver is that investors are looking for geographical diversification. The same situation played out on Wall Street about 10 to 15 years ago," he says.
Buy American (Companies)
Over the past five years, foreign takeovers of U.S. companies have steadily risen. Among the more notable: Swiss pharmaceutical maker Novartis' $39 billion staggered buyout of Alcon, the world leader in eye care; British energy distributor National Grid's takeover of utility KeySpan Corp. for $11.8 billion; Saudi Arabian petrochemical company SABIC's acquisition of GE's plastics division for $11.6 billion; and Italian aerospace company Finmeccanica's pending takeover of the U.S. military contractor DRS Technologies in a $5.2 billion deal. Some 55% of foreign direct investment in the U.S. came from the Old Country last year, with extra impetus now coming from its currency advantage. Says Scévole de Cazotte, senior policy director for Europe at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: "European companies are very much conscious of the potential windfall. You buy cheap now with the belief that in 10 years the currency will have rebounded."
Infrastructure is a prime example. Barcelona-based Abertis has been buying up airport-operation contracts from Atlanta and Burbank, Calif., among others, and a variety of service contracts in tele communications and parking garages. Now it is seeking a $12.8 billion deal to operate the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but the state legislature has balked. The road to growth leads to the U.S., says Abertis spokesman Toni Brunet, who notes that states and municipalities have lagged behind European public entities in privatization. "In terms of infrastructure, the U.S. is an emerging market," says Brunet.
Indeed, European infrastructure firms calculate that the U.S. needs a massive infusion of capital to modernize its roads, bridges and power lines, highlighted by a recent spate of blackouts and the tragic collapse of a Minneapolis highway bridge last year. Steve Lucas, cfo of British power utility National Grid, says estimates are that the U.S. will spend $2 trillion in the next two decades upgrading electricity and gas infrastructure. "That's bigger than China," he notes.
The U.K.-based utility has been on a shopping spree that--while hardly anyone was looking--has transformed the company into a force in power and gas in the U.S., serving 4.4 million electricity customers and 3.4 million gas customers. In 2000 it bought New England Electric System and the Eastern Utilities Association. Two years later it grabbed Niagara Mohawk. Then in 2006 it scooped up Rhode Island Gas, and last year it completed its acquisition of KeySpan. That deal put National Grid among the top five distributors of electricity and natural gas in the U.S.
Shopping for Innovation
It's not just about accumulating buildings or businesses. The U.S. is also a technology supermarket. Talk to Peer Michael Schatz, CEO of Qiagen, a German biotech firm that is a leader in technologies to isolate and prepare DNA and RNA for medical testing. Last year Qiagen merged with Digene, a U.S. biotech group that has developed groundbreaking diagnostic technology for the early detection of cervical cancer. Schatz says constant shopping for innovation in the U.S. is a key to his business plan, scouring technology-auction sites of American universities, searching for the right technology in the early phases of development. "The difference between the U.S. and Europe is that the U.S. has stellar science and a rapid rate of innovation and transferring that technology to the market for commercial purposes," he says. "No other country comes close."
There's even an upside to the relative cheapness of the U.S. dollar. Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn wants to boost the number of VWs the company sells in the U.S. to 800,000 over the next decade. But he has to cut costs to get the price down, which means building the cars on American soil with more U.S.-made components. So in July, Volkswagen announced plans to build two new sedan models in a $1 billion plant in Tennessee. VW hopes to export cars to Europe. "They could save $8,000 a car by building in the U.S.," says Sean McAlinden, chief economist with the research group Center for Automotive Research, based in Ann Arbor, Mich. "The market has changed. It will be a much bigger market for the kind of small car with advanced technology that the Europeans are so good at making."
And it's not just Volkswagen. GM's European-manufactured Opel Astra is expected to be built in the U.S. in the future. Volvo, writhing under the burden of the weak dollar, has reportedly asked Ford to find facilities for it to produce Volvos in the U.S. instead of Sweden.
Viewed from ground level, rising investment in the U.S. looks like a great thing. Without the inflow of foreign capital, the dollar would probably be even weaker and interest rates and inflation could be higher. But Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner and former chief economist of the World Bank, says there may not be a happy ending. For years, Stiglitz has warned that Americans are living beyond their means. The U.S. trade deficit exceeded $712 billion last year, or 5.1% of GDP. That's nothing more than America's borrowing money from abroad to support a lifestyle that is unsustainable. But whether foreigners are now buying hotels, pharmaceutical companies or utilities, the numbers tell us that the rest of the world is no longer willing to foot the bill to feed America's consumption habit. "It's not just that American assets are cheaper. The untold story here is that foreign investors are no longer willing to finance American debt," says Stiglitz. "They now want equity."
We used to measure the economy in terms of GNP, which is the amount of income produced by U.S. citizens. But now we measure it by GDP, the income that is actually produced in America. The distinction becomes important, says Stiglitz, when an increasing proportion of the country is owned abroad. "If you were to look at America Inc. as a company, it's like owning a company and you own a smaller and smaller fraction of it. So the fraction of America Inc. owned by Americans is diminishing," says Stiglitz.
That means that when the economy recovers, there will be less wealth left in the country to reinvest in it. But then returning to the original question--Why is the American yard sale not setting off alarms?--Stiglitz explains that the alternative is even worse. "There isn't an outcry," he says, "because the focus right now is the weakness of the American economy, and anything to keep our economy going is welcome." That's why no one really objected to Citibank's becoming a Middle Eastern--financed bank, because it's better than Citi's becoming a dead bank. "But clearly we're worse off as a country," he says.
When the dust settles on the current downturn, the U.S. economy will probably regain its dealmaking swagger. But unlike the Japanese experience in the 1980s, the current trend of foreign buyouts won't be unwound. Yet the only way for the U.S. to avoid becoming a second-rate economy is to make the investments necessary to stay ahead in knowledge and innovation. Will we do it? There are a whole bunch of rich foreigners who have just bet their future on it.
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