bull-shit

中国政府出色地利用了美国次贷危机引发的贪婪

倍可亲(backchina.com)　　中国政府出色地利用美国次贷危机引发的贪婪，强烈地反击了日益增长的、认为贸易主义会抵制主权基金的预期。毕竟，美国国会的孤立主义者很难提出反对，因为中国投资有限责任公司已经变成华尔街重要公司的救星。

　　华尔街还将为中国和中东公司组成一个强大的同盟，这就像白天之后是黑夜一样自然。但不是很久以前，当中国石油巨头中国海洋石油总公司（CNOOC）鲁莽地意图收购一家中档的美国石油公司，保护主义的嚎叫就开始增长。

　　中国斥资50亿美元，目前拥有摩根士丹利9.9%的股份。此前该公司透露99亿美元资产减记，导致第四季度损失36亿美元。

　　中国还拥有大量贝尔斯登（Bear Stearns）股份，而且在之前更为安静的日子里，以30亿美元买下黑石集团10%的股份。

　　新加坡政府已经获得瑞士瑞银集团价值100亿美元的股份，而且阿布扎比以75亿美元的投资搭救花旗集团。

　　如果说势力从西方转向东方，那么这些交易更明显地体现了这一点。这些交易来得恰逢其时，华尔街宽松的风险控制和纯粹的贪欲有自我引爆的倾向。

　　在摩根士丹利的例子中，它拿140亿美元投注债权抵押证券（CDO）市场，如果一切顺利，可以收获20亿美元的利润，但结果却造成70亿美元的损失。

　　这是某种灾难。

　　中国投资有限责任公司刚刚拨出670亿美元投资境外股票。澳大利亚财政部长坦纳（Lindsay Tanner）在过去几年是自由市场的倡导者，曾经敦促取消对外国投资的管制，但如今他有了第二种想法，因为中国与必和必拓（BHP Billiton）的收购事件会有政治影响。

　　今年，中国已经在境外投资292亿美元，而外国人的投资“仅为”215亿美元，这是投资流第一次出现逆转。这种趋势或是不祥的，或是积极的，这是见仁见智的事，但明显的是，这种趋势是真实的，而且愈发壮大。（作者 John Durie）

THE Chinese Government has brilliantly exploited the greed inspired US sub-prime crisis to build a strong case against the predicted increase in protectionism against sovereign wealth funds.

After all, surely it will be hard for the isolationists in the US Congress to mount a case against the Chinese Investment Corporation after it has come to the rescue of key Wall Street firms.

Wall Street will also form a powerful ally for China and Middle East firms when, as sure as night follows day, the protectionist howls begin to grow as they did not so long ago when CNOOC, the Chinese oil major, had the temerity to bid for a mid rank US oil company.

China now has a 9.9 per cent stake in Morgan Stanley after last night’s $US5 billion ($5.8 billion) equity injection after the firm unveiled a $US9.9 billion write-down to push its fourth quarter loss to $US3.6 billion.

It also owns a chunk of Bear Stearns and in more tranquil days a $US3 billion investment bought it 10 per cent of buyout firm Blackstone.

The Singapore Government has acquired a $US10 billion stake in Swiss based UBS and Abu Dhabi came to Citigroup’s rescue with a $US 7.5 billion investment.

If ever the transfer of power from West to East was more apparent it is through deals like these, which appropriately enough came via Wall Street’s penchant for blowing itself up through lax risk controls and outright greed.

In Morgan’s case it was a $US14 billion bet on the CDO market which, if all went well, would have netted the firm a $US2 billion profit, but instead ended with a $US 7 billion loss.

That is some sort of disaster.

With superb timing just yesterday, the local Morgan Stanley PR team circulated a recent research report from London-based Stephen Jen detailing the rise of sovereign wealth funds and their advantages.

His boss John Mack no doubt agrees wholeheartedly because he looks set to retain his job, while his comrades at Bear Stearns, Citigroup, UBS and Merrill Lynch have lost theirs.

Sovereign wealth funds are now estimated to have $US2.5 trillion in funds compared to official reserves at $US5.6 trillion and $US1.6 trillion invested in hedge funds.

Morgan’s Jen figures the big emerging countries have $US1.5 trillion in excess reserves so the story will only get bigger.

The China Investment Corp has just allocated $US67 billion to invest in offshore equities.

Australian Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, a free market advocate who in years past has urged the scrapping of foreign investment controls, now says he is having second thoughts because of the political impact of, say, China bidding for BHP Billiton.

This year China has invested $US29.2 billion outside the country compared to “just “ $21.5 billion invested by foreigners, marking the first time the flows have reversed.

The trend is an ominous one or a positive one depending on which side of the ledger you stand, but clearly the trend is real and getting bigger.