The beginning of a trend that will effect us all...China moves into US offshore oil

Offshore
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I for one, DO NOT LIKE THIS NEWS!

CNOOC to Acquire Nexen for $15.1B

by Karen Boman | Rigzone Staff | Monday, July 23, 2012

China-based CNOOC Limited will expand its international business and resource base by acquiring Calgary-based Nexen Inc. in an acquisition valued at $15.1 billion.

Under the agreement, CNOOC will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Nexen for $27.50 per share in cash. The purchase price represents a premium of 61 percent to Nexen’s common share closing price on the New York Stock Exchange on July 20.

The acquisition will allow CNOOC to deliver long-term, sustainable growth, and will deliver significant and immediate value to Nexen shareholders, said officials with both companies. Nexen Board Chairman Barry Jackson said the board is recommending shareholders vote in favor of the transaction.

CNOOC will bring greater financial capacity to better realize the full potential of Nexen’s significant resource base, with plans to invest significant capital in Canada and in Nexen’s other international assets.

Nexen’s will complement CNOOC’s large offshore production footprint in China and extends CNOOC 's global presence with a high-quality asset base in many of the world’s most significant producing regions.

“The acquisition reflects our strong belief in Nexen’s rich and diverse portfolio of assets and world-class management and employees,” said CNOOC Chairman Wang Yilin. “This is an exciting opportunity for us to build on our existing joint venture relationship with Nexen in Canada, and to acquire a leading international platform in the process.”

Nexen has operations in Western Canada, the UK North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Nigeria, and is focused on conventional oil and gas, oil sands and shale gas, the companies said in a joint statement. Nexen management’s current mandate will be expanded to include all of CNOOC North American and Caribbean assets.

Nexen had average production of 207,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day after royalties in second quarter 2012. The company had 900 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) of proved reserves and 1,122 MMboe of probable reserves as of Dec. 31, 2011.

As part of the acquisition, CNOOC will make Calgary the head office of its North and Central American operations. This office will oversee the operation and growth of Nexen’s assets in North and South America, Europe and West Africa and CNOOC 's portfolio in Canada, the U.S. and Central America.

CNOOC plans to retain Nexen’s current management team and employees, and intends to list its common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

CNOOC has invested $2.7 billion (CAD $2.8 billion) in Canada since 2005, including investment stakes in MEG Energy, OPTI Canada, Nexen’s partner in the Long Lake steam assisted gravity drainage production facilities, and a 60 percent interest in Northern Cross (Yukon) Limited.

Canada’s Industry Minister said Monday that his agency and Canada’s Competition Bureau would review the proposed transaction. CNOOC has indicated it would be filing an application for review under the Act shortly, said Paradis in a statement.

“I approve applications where I am satisfied that a proposed investment is likely to be of net benefit to Canada,” said Paradis.

Paradis would take into consideration factors listed in the Investment Canada Act when deciding whether to approve the deal. These factors include:

•The effect of the investment on the level and nature of economic activity in Canada, including the effect on employment, resource processing and utilization of parts, components and services produced Canada
•The degree and significance of participation by Canadians in the Canadian business
•The effect of the investment on productivity, industrial efficiency, technological development, product innovation and product variety of Canada
•The effect of the investment on competition within any industry or industries in Canada
•The compatibility of the investment with national industrial, economic and cultural policies
•The contribution of the investment on Canada’s ability to compete in world markets
Under the Competition act, the Competition Bureau has a mandate to review mergers to decide whether they would likely result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition.

The acquisition would mean more investment in resource development that what Nexen could or would have invested, said Derek Gates, president of Sustainable Wealth Management, in a recent interview with Rigzone. The fact that the company will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, have regional headquarters in Calgary, and keep all of Nexen’s workers, is a big bonus for Canada.

The acquisition also will give CNOOC access to more oil resources, and the ability to tap into technological expertise for oil sands and shale development.

“Whatever they learn in Canada, they can apply at home,” said Gates.

CNOOC will likely make significant investments in West Africa projects and Canadian oil sands projects, while putting less money in the UK North Sea.

I don’t know the extent of leases Nexen holds in the GoM but this news is not good for those of us like me who do not want to see the Chinese come to the US Gulf. Paying a 61% premium on Nexen stock just shows how strong the position of CNOOC is and how agressive they can be acquiring independent producers. Who might be next Devon? Anadarko? BHP? If I could get 61% on my stock in one of these companies, I’d be all over it. Of course, Nexen being Canadian made the deal a bit easier. To take over a US independent, would have big political implications as we saw several years ago when the Chinese tried to buy Unocal. Still with the level of money the Chinese have will ultimately make it hard to hold them off forever.

Expect to see this trend now continue in the years to come…

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Somewhere I saw a chart of Nexen’s lease holdings in the Gulf. There are 90 leases over a brad area. This makes Nexen 29th largest oil producer and the 42nd largest gas producer in the Gulf.

Cnooc Hired U.S. Lobbyists Prior to Nexen Announcement
By Jim Snyder and Rebecca Penty - Jul 26, 2012 10:01 PM ET

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Chinese energy giant Cnooc Ltd. (883), whose efforts to buy a U.S. oil company in 2005 sparked an outcry over foreign ownership, hired two Washington lobbying firms just before announcing its plan to buy Nexen Inc. (NXY)

Cnooc, owned by the Chinese government and based in Beijing, agreed July 23 to pay $15.1 billion for Nexen, a Calgary-based company that operates in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico. It is Cnooc’s biggest North American deal since it walked away from Unocal Corp. under congressional pressure and the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company.
Enlarge image Cnooc Hired U.S. Lobbyists Prior to Nexen Purchase Announcement

Cnooc, China’s largest offshore oil and gas explorer, hadn’t paid a firm to lobby Congress since its 2005 attempt to buy Unocal, according to public records. Unocal was eventually bought by San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp. Photographer: Nelson Ching/Bloomberg

If approved, the Nexen takeover would mark the first time a Chinese company would be the operator of leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, instead of a minority stakeholder. Nexen now operates 90 leases in the Gulf, where it’s the 29th-largest oil producer and 42nd-largest gas producer, according to the most recent operator ranking by the Interior Department from July 16.

The purchase of U.S. assets by foreign companies can be blocked on national security grounds.

Cnooc’s takeover of Nexen will probably be reviewed more closely than other international deals, Iain McPhie, a lawyer at Squire Sanders LLP in Washington, said in an interview. “The Chinese just raise strategic issues that an acquirer from the United Kingdom and France don’t raise,” said McPhie, who’s not involved in this transaction.

Cnooc and Nexen said in a July 24 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that they intend to put the deal to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States for review.
Divesture Possible

The committee, a division of the Treasury Department, has the power to impose conditions on foreign acquisitions, including the “extreme” step of forcing a divesture of the U.S. assets, said McPhie, who has represented clients before the committee.

“We bought energy assets in the U.S. before and we have experience on how to get regulatory clearance,” Cnooc Chief Executive Officer Li Fanrong said on a conference call with reporters on July 23. Spokesmen for Cnooc and Nexen didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on their efforts to get the deal approved in the U.S.

Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates registered to lobby on behalf of Cnooc July 12. Its lobbyists include Bud Cramer, a former Democratic representative from Alabama, public records show.

In May, Cnooc hired Hill & Knowlton Strategies to lobby Congress on issues relating to the environment and natural gas, according to public records filed with the Senate.

Both firms are part of WPP Plc (WPP) in Dublin.
Lobbying in Canada

Allison Cohen, a spokeswoman for Hill & Knowlton, said the firm didn’t comment “on our clients or prospects.” A call to Wexler and Walker wasn’t immediately returned.

Hill & Knowlton employees have been lobbying Canadian government departments, ministers and officials for Cnooc, according to a website registry run by the Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada.

Cnooc, China’s largest offshore oil and gas explorer, hadn’t paid a firm to lobby Congress since its 2005 attempt to buy Unocal, according to public records. Unocal was eventually bought by San Ramon, California-based Chevron Corp. (CVX)

When it withdrew its Unocal bid, Cnooc said in an announcement that “unprecedented political opposition” to its proposed purchase was “regrettable and unjustified.”

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, planned to urge Timothy Geithner, who as Treasury secretary is the chairman of the committee on foreign investment, to withhold approval of the purchase until China agreed to provide U.S. goods more access to Chinese markets, according to a draft letter reviewed by Bloomberg News.
Schumer Letter

Schumer expressed overall support for the deal, saying it “will benefit the United States and help ensure the continued resurgence of our domestic energy sector,” according to the letter, which the senator’s office said would be sent today.

Nancy McLernon, chief executive officer of the Organization for International Investment, said the purchase by foreign companies of U.S.-based assets has become less politically charged since then.

“There is a widespread recognition of the value of foreign investment in the U.S.,” McLernon whose Washington-based group includes U.S. subsidiaries of Iberdrola SA (IBE) in Bilbao, Spain, and Tokyo-based Sony Corp. (6758), said in an interview.

Nexen’s other oil and gas assets include production in Nigeria and the North Sea, as well as oil-sands reserves at Long Lake, Alberta, where it already produces crude in a joint venture with Cnooc.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jim Snyder in Washington at jsnyder24@bloomberg.net; Rebecca Penty in Calgary at rpenty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net; Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net

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You guys are killing me

Read gCaptain’s Is CNOOC Buying Into The Gulf of Mexico?

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[QUOTE=Mikey;76236]You guys are killing me

Read gCaptain’s Is CNOOC Buying Into The Gulf of Mexico?[/QUOTE]

Sorry Mike…missed that one from a couple of days ago. You were right there on top of this one. Shows you’re all not asleep at the switch afterall!

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[QUOTE=c.captain;76177]I for one, DO NOT LIKE THIS NEWS!
[/QUOTE]

Neither does anyone else.

Get used to it. We are no longer, and probably never will be again in our lifetimes, the biggest kid on the block. We have nobody to thank other than the politicians we elected and the policies we allowed them to implement over the last 50 years. We are no smarter or dumber than any other superpower over the last 3,000 years…

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[QUOTE=BMCSRetired;76259]Neither does anyone else.

Get used to it. We are no longer, and probably never will be again in our lifetimes, the biggest kid on the block. We have nobody to thank other than the politicians we elected and the policies we allowed them to implement over the last 50 years. We are no smarter or dumber than any other superpower over the last 3,000 years…[/QUOTE]

Man, we are so going to be working for them someday but by then I’ll be just another pissed off angry retired guy with no money and a pittance of a Social Security check with nothing better to do but to go on the internet each day with this endless rants…

oh…I’m sorry, thanks for telling me. It seems folks I already am that pissed off angry guy on the internet all the time but it just happens that I just haven’t retired yet…

DAMNED! I thought I had my future all planned out and everything. Now I need a new plan, but what? Maybe I’ll just build little bird houses and sell em out of the back of my truck? That or build homemade bombs and sell them out of the back of my pick up? I know bombs disguised as birdhouses! Whatta y’all think?

.

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China already owns us. We are so far in debt with that country for funding our wars…We don’t have may options left but to stand here and watch them take over everything, sadly.

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Their wars, just another mechanism to suck money out of the economy for the benefit of the few…

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[QUOTE=rjbpilot;76292]China already owns us. We are so far in debt with that country for funding our wars…We don’t have may options left but to stand here and watch them take over everything, sadly.[/QUOTE]

indeed sir…sadly indeed

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When someone owes the bank a little bit of money, the bank has them by the gonads. When they owe the bank a whole lot of money, they have the bank by the gonads.

We owe China so much money that they cannot afford to walk away from it by going to war or causing other mischief that would encourage the US to repudiate the debt or massively devalue our currency. We are also China’s primary market. Without access to the US consumer market, the Chinese economy would collapse overnight. We have China by both gonads.

On the other hand, how are private companies suppose to compete with companies that are owned and controlled by the Chinese government? Its pretty hard for a private company to compete with a Chinese company that is an instrument of state policy that has a command and control economy with vast resources and one billion people behind it.

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Well said tugsailor. Sometimes this ‘global economy’ thing sucks, but you are right in many ways. The two countries are dependent on each other.

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[QUOTE=tugsailor;76327]On the other hand, how are private companies suppose to compete with companies that are owned and controlled by the Chinese government? [/QUOTE]

It’s easy to get rid of that problem, get rid of the American companies. Make sure American policy eliminates private American companies that might pose a threat to Chinese industry. Allow what should be national security assets to be shipped out of the country or eliminated through “fair trade” rules that favor foreign competition.

Eliminate American skills and capabilities by allowing cheaper foreign workers to come in and do the work because "there are no American (workers, ships, factories - fill in what applies) t do the job. Pay those foreign companies with American tax dollars. We have quite a few who augment their Congressional, USCG, DoD, or whatever retirement plan by seeing to it that this happens.

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[QUOTE=c.captain;76278]Man, we are so going to be working for them someday but by then I’ll be just another pissed off angry retired guy with no money and a pittance of a Social Security check with nothing better to do but to go on the internet each day with this endless rants…

oh…I’m sorry, thanks for telling me. It seems folks I already am that pissed off angry guy on the internet all the time but it just happens that I just haven’t retired yet…

DAMNED! I thought I had my future all planned out and everything. Now I need a new plan, but what? Maybe I’ll just build little bird houses and sell em out of the back of my truck? That or build homemade bombs and sell them out of the back of my pick up? I know bombs disguised as birdhouses! Whatta y’all think?

.[/QUOTE]

I think we will keep going the way we are and that no one will be a LEADER and do the right thing. Politicians will keep being politicians, making sure they get elected, we the people will spend our time bitching about it, and things will go on the way they are now. Nobody is willing to compromise for the greater good anymore.

Bombs disguised as birdhouses? That’s just what we need. Just make sure you dye your hair red and name yourself after a comic book villain.

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Just found this from A.P.

NEW YORK (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that it froze assets of Hong Kong traders who bought stock in a Canadian company before a firm owned by the Chinese government announced plans to buy it this week.

The SEC said Friday that Well Advantage Limited and other traders used accounts in Hong Kong and Singapore to make over $13 million trading shares in Canadian oil and gas company Nexen Inc. based on inside information.

China’s CNOOC Ltd. Oil company announced plans to buy Nexen on Monday for $15.1 billion.

Zhang Zhi Rong, a billionaire Hong Kong businessman, controls Well Advantage, according to the SEC. The agency said he also runs another company that has a “cooperation agreement” with CNOOC.

The SEC said it moved to freeze the assets shortly after Well Advantage tried to sell all of its Nexen stock.

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a recent article on this subject which is positive imo…

Markey, Schumer Call on Temporary Block for CNOOC-Nexen Deal

by Karen Boman Rigzone Staff Monday, July 30, 2012

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has joined Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in calling for the United States to issue a conditional block CNOOC’s proposed acquisition of Canada-based Nexen, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Markey said that Nexen has drilled for oil in the U.S. without paying royalties and that, if the merger proceeded, would result in a “massive transfer of wealth” to China at the expense of the American taxpayer, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to block CNOOC’s proposed acquisition of Canada-based energy company Nexen until the Chinese government takes “concrete, enforceable steps to open that country’s markets to foreign investment and level the playing field in international trade.”

Schumer, in a letter to Geithner, said he did not object to the deal on its merits, but said it presented “an important opportunity to pressure China to consent to economic reforms it has resisted for years.”

“It is rare that we have so much leverage to exert upon China,” Schumer noted. “We should not let this window of opportunity pass us by. At some point, we have to put our foot down over China’s refusal to play by the rules of free trade.”

Geithner is chairman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CIFUS), which reviews deals involving the sale of U.S. interests to foreign firms for national security purposes.

While Nexen is a Canadian oil company, it has significant drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. For this reason, the proposed acquisition would require approval from (CIFUS).

“And because of Nexen’s overseas operations, the deal also must be signed off on by the UK,” Andrew Schrage, co-owner of the financial news website Money Crashers, told Rigzone Monday. “This process could take up to nine months.”

Schumer suggested a number of concrete steps China could take to show good faith, including:

joining the Government Procurement Agreement
following through on promise to simplify review system for foreign investments to focus only on national security concerns
stepping up enforcement of intellectual property infringements
requiring provincial, municipal governments to adopt reforms that the national government made last year to the 2006 indigenous innovation policy.

Valued at more than $15 billion, CNOOC’s proposed acquisition of Nexen would be the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Chinese company.

Predictions as to whether the deal will get the approval of the United States vary, said Schrage. Some say Schumber’s comments are nothing more than political bluster in an attempt to play hardball with the Chinese, and that the United States should welcome anyone interested in investing in the United States’ oil and gas sector.

While the United States in effect killed much of the Keystone Pipeline System, it recently approved foreign investment in U.S. oil by Norway, Korea, India and even from China itself. Early this year, China-based Sinopec invested $2.2 billion in Oklahoma-based Devon Energy.

“Also, CNOOC enlisted the services of two Washington, D.C-based lobbyist firms earlier this year, so it seems that the company is going to do whatever it takes to get the deal passed,” Schrage said.

However, a previous attempt by the Chinese to acquire Unocal Corporation in 2005 was met with “vehement governmental disapproval”, and the bid was later withdrawn. The opposition was based on potential “threats” to national security, Schrage said.

“On that note, CIFUS is strictly limited to reviewing deals based only on national security and nothing else, and their own lawyers say they don’t think the transaction will face any significant obstruction,” Schrage said.

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Very true. But the position that we find our country in is on very shaky ground. We dug ourselves a huge hole of debt (with China) that was reflective of most Americans living beyond their means in the last decade. “Just Charge It! … I’ll pay for it later.” Our currency has been seriously devalued not to mention the entire economy. Our sector, fortunately, has a ray of sunshine sparkling on the horizon.

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Dodged a bullet from the sounds of it.

CNOOC Said to Cede Operating Control of Nexen’s U.S. Gulf Assets

By Rebecca Penty and Sara Forden

(Bloomberg) — Cnooc Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil and natural gas producer, was barred from controlling Gulf of Mexico oilfields under U.S. terms for its $15.1 billion takeover of Nexen Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

In its purchase of Calgary-based Nexen, Cnooc acquired about 200 deep-water leases in the Gulf with reserves equivalent to about 205 million barrels of oil, one of the largest holdings in the Gulf, according to Nexen’s website. The state-owned Chinese oil explorer surrendered operating control of those assets to quell U.S. national security concerns, said two people familiar with the agreement who asked not to be named because the terms aren’t public.

Related: Is CNOOC Buying Into the U.S. Gulf of Mexico?

The U.S. requirements for Cnooc contrast with approvals for state-owned companies including Norway’s Statoil ASA and Brazil’s Petroleo Brasileiro SA to control drilling and production in the Gulf. The U.S. is restricting Chinese transactions when the investment targets are close to military installations or have access to certain kinds of technology. Growing concerns over intellectual property theft and cyber attacks also have fueled scrutiny of Chinese acquisitions.

“The United States is uncomfortable with the character of the Chinese government, which it sees as extending to Chinese state-influenced companies,” Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Virginia-based research group, said in a phone interview yesterday. “The Chinese are very sensitive about parity in economic relations,” and may retaliate with stronger protections for Chinese companies against U.S. competition, Thompson said.

CFIUS Conditions

Nexen said on Feb. 12 it had received approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, for its takeover by Cnooc without specifying conditions, which it said are confidential.

Cnooc will still own the assets and be allowed some general oversight, as well as to collect revenue from the properties, according to the people and an e-mail reviewed by Bloomberg sent by Nexen to its employees.

The “most significant” term of Cnooc’s agreement with the U.S. committee was its transition to non-operator from operator, Peter Addy, the president of Nexen’s U.S. unit, wrote in an e- mail to employees on Feb. 20, which was seen by Bloomberg.

“In the coming months, we will devote our attention to identifying and developing procedures to remove Nexen from its role as an operator,” Addy wrote in the e-mail.

Deciding Power

The word operator is an industry term to describe who has responsibility for decision-making on a project.

Patti Lewis, a spokeswoman for Cnooc’s Nexen unit in Calgary, declined to comment on the specifics of the CFIUS approval. Steven MacKinnon, a spokesman for Cnooc based in Ottawa, also declined to comment.

Cnooc “remains committed to investing in growth projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and we’re confident our business there will be a viable component of our company for the long term,” Lewis wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

Holly Shulman, a spokeswoman for CFIUS, declined to comment, saying by law information filed with CFIUS may not be disclosed to the public.

The U.S. is officially open to Chinese investment, a position that has been affirmed by President Barack Obama and senior administration officials. However, national security issues increasingly “are presenting challenges in transactions involving Chinese acquirers,” according to a study published by Covington & Burling LLP in December.

Malicious Hardware

An October House Intelligence Committee report raised concerns about the counterintelligence and security threat posed by Chinese telecommunications companies doing business in the U.S., and urged the government to block transactions by Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., China’s two largest phone- equipment makers, citing concerns that the Chinese government could install malicious hardware or software in U.S. telecommunications networks.

In September, Obama barred a Chinese-owned company from building wind farms near a U.S. Navy base in Oregon, the first time in 22 years a president has blocked a transaction as a national security risk. CFIUS previously had blocked at least three transactions that would have resulted in Chinese companies gaining control of assets near military facilities.

Resolving Threats

“This kind of agreement is a well-established method that has been used in putting together transactions involving Chinese entities that ensures there are no location or technology issues that could threaten national security and allow the investment to go forward,” said Ivan Schlager, who heads the CFIUS practice for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington and wasn’t involved in the transaction.

Nexen controlled platforms in the near-shore West Delta oilfield within 50 miles of the U.S. Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base at Belle Chasse, Louisiana, southeast of New Orleans.

“You do have U.S. national security installations around the Gulf of Mexico,” said Erica Downs, a fellow at the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution who has studied the international expansion of Chinese companies. “If I had to put money on something, that’s probably what CFIUS was concerned with and that’s consistent with other concerns CFIUS has had about other Chinese investments.” Downs is a former energy analyst at CIA.

Expanding Reserves

The purchase of Nexen, which operates in Canada’s oil sands, the U.K. North Sea and offshore West Africa, will add 20 percent to the Chinese company’s production and 30 percent to reserves, Cnooc Chief Executive Officer Li Fanrong said on Feb. 27.

The transaction, closed Feb. 25, spurred the Canadian government to say future acquisitions in the oil sands by state- owned foreign companies would be rejected barring “exceptional circumstances.” Cnooc’s previous attempt to gain control of U.S. oil and gas assets also failed, as the company abandoned its bid for Unocal Corp. in 2005 after facing political opposition in Washington.

The U.S. assets in the Nexen deal, including leases for which Nexen held a stake but did not control output, produced the equivalent of about 15,600 barrels of oil in 2012, about 8 percent of Nexen’s total output for that year, according to the company’s annual report.

Sales Possible

The terms are a “slight negative” for Cnooc, because they probably will force it to seek partners to operate the existing production Nexen had controlled, as well as any exploration on its leases, John Stephenson, a vice-president and portfolio manager who helps oversee C$2.8 billion ($2.73 billion) at First Asset Investment Management Inc. in Toronto, said in a phone interview yesterday.

CFIUS is an interagency committee headed by Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew that reviews the national security implications of transactions that could lead to a non-U.S. citizen controlling a U.S. business.

The panel has allowed some recent Chinese deals including Dalian Wanda Group’s $2.6 billion purchase of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. to create the world’s biggest cinema owner in May. In August, China’s largest auto-parts maker Wanxiang Group Corp, bought A123 Systems Inc., a maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, even with facing criticism from congressional Republicans.

BGI-Shenzhen, a Chinese operator of genome-sequencing centers, won CFIUS approval in December to buy Mountain View, California-based Complete Genomics Inc., for about $117.6 million.

Copyright 2013 Bloomberg.

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This trend began decades ago with the dismantling of trade restrictions and tariffs, and the hard-sell of globalism, which not only hurts us but hurts many others.

The independence movement in India was spurred in part by mass-produced textile imports from Britain, which crushed the domestic Indian textile industry and caused widespread poverty and starvation. That is why Gandhi was often seen spinning his own yarn- it was an act of political and economic defiance. It was actually illegal in the under the British Raj to weave and make your own clothing, even for personal use. Same with other imports like salt, hence the famous march to the sea to make salt.

When will we stand up and begin to spin our own yarn again?

I just don’t see it happening. We are still mesmerized by the mass media and sold the narrative that cheap is good, union members are greedy, globalism is beneficial, war is peace, freedom is slavery, etc. The recent incidents with the cruise ships spurred some talk about flags of convenience and the Jones Act, but look how quickly that chatter dwindled away.

There are many days I wake up and am glad to be older. I sure wouldn’t want to be a young person today and witness the decline of the nation while anesthetized on social media, antidepressants, the 24 hour news cycle, and other symptoms of a dying society. The city of Detroit just got handed over to an emergency manager to stave off bankruptcy…

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[QUOTE=rjbpilot;76892]Very true. But the position that we find our country in is on very shaky ground. We dug ourselves a huge hole of debt (with China) that was reflective of most Americans living beyond their means in the last decade. “Just Charge It! … I’ll pay for it later.” Our currency has been seriously devalued not to mention the entire economy. Our sector, fortunately, has a ray of sunshine sparkling on the horizon.[/QUOTE]

Much of that debt was to support war and the machinery of war. I wanted to hurl a brick thorough my television every time some talking head moron insisted that the Iraq war would pay for itself via oil profits. Those of us who know how commodities are bought and sold were horrified and if we questioned this groupthink were told that we “hated America” or didn’t support the troops some such nonsense. There is no “we” when it comes to energy profits unless you are one of the major shareholders.

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Whoa easy there citizen some of those comments could be misunderstood as being subversive!