Posted on 08/20/2002 9:00:10 PM PDT by kattracks
London's prestigious Financial Times reports that "disgruntled Saudis have pulled tens of billions of dollars out of the US, signalling a deep alienation from America."
The paper cites one analyst who says the Saudis have pulled approximately $200 billion out of the U.S. economy since 9/11.
The Saudis are angry about negative press criticism in the U.S. after it was reported that 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.
Critics of Saudi Arabia say the oil sheikdom has been funding radical Islam.
Relations have been further strained after an analyst from the Rand Corporation recently briefed the Pentagon, calling Saudi Arabia an enemy and advocating the oil fields should be seized.
The FT said that "Youssef Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations working on a project re-examining US-Saudi relations, said Saudis had withdrawn at least $200bn from the US in recent months. He said the move has been driven by hawkish US commentators' calls for the freezing of Saudi assets."
Ibrahim added that the Saudis will pull out even more money "with last week's trillion-dollar lawsuit by relative of the victims of September 11. The lawsuit accuses several Saudi institutions and charities and three members of the royal family, including the defence minister, of financing terrorism."
The FT estimates Saudi investments could total as much as $600 billion, with funds invested in private equity, the stock and bond markets and real estate.
Already there have been unconfirmed reports that several Saudi princes have sold their homes, or in the process of selling their homes, in Washington area.
The FT says that the Saudi money exoduc "may have contributed to the recent downward pressure on the dollar."
"People no longer have any confidence in the US economy or in US foreign policy," said Bishr Bakheet, a financial consultant in Riyadh told the FT.
"And if the latest lawsuit is not thrown out in court, it will mean no more Saudi money in the US."
Some of their homes are pretty gaudy, I wonder how they'll find buyers with enough money and lack of taste.
It's a fact. What have they got to be angry about.
People dont earn that kind of money being emotional twits....you do it through smart business sense.
They were either cashing out in order not to get soaked by the market or they think there is some other reason to pull their money out before they lose it.
???
Well actually they got their money by owning a lot of oil wells. This is going to hurt them. Selling so many assets so quickly will depress prices and they will have to invest it elsewhere which will increase prices where ever they decide to park it. Selling low and buying high.
They may not have much choice though. It sounds like any Saudi assets in the US may be frozen soon while these lawsuits are litigated.
While they are selling though I wouldn't want to own a lot of US securities. It is likly to depress prices for quite a while. Could lead to a good buying opportunity in a few years though. I think I will wait and see if Bush invades Iraq before I take the plunge. Euro denominated investments might be a good bet in the short term? ???
They're afraid of losing all of it in the forthcoming lawsuits.
Take their oil fields and give their women the vote. That'll fix'em.
Two very good ideas that need combining.
The treacherous two faced lying bitch has earned our hatred, and deserves to feel the wrath of a brutal American vengence.
Semper Fi
The Saudis invested here, not out of friendship for America, but because - in Moslem countries - interest is verboten, even on loans and investments; but they could get interest, compounded constantly, from US banks and bonds. I'm willing to bet that their sudden pull-out is not based so much on Saudi patriotism as it is on the Enron-type debacles. Soon they'll be back, making their secretive investments again, because the lure of un-Islamic interest is too tempting.
About 20 years ago Jane Fonda made a truly awful movie, Rollover, which displayed the economic sophistication of a junior high school student, to the effect that the Saudis already owned us, but if we complained about it then they would make the US economy collapse completely.
I think the thing that we all need to be aware of is that there are really only 2 markets in the world. the one which is dominated by America and American interests, and one which deals exclusively in camels and chick peas, and is stuck in some sandy 15th century backwater in the middleastern desert.
Where could the Saudi's move 10 billion dollars where it would not be to the benefit of Americans? Japan? Europe? Think again.
American interest are global. If any financial market in the world is supported with that wealth, then American interests (inevitably ) are supported. And to move that wealth anywhere other than the traditional financial markets is to render it useless for buying anything that the Saudi's value.
the money isn't going anywhere, if they want to be able to use it to buy anything made anywhere buy Riyadh. (and the last time I checked, Riyadh wasn't much of a manufacturing center.)
Where's boy dubya and the U/S Treasury Dept.???
No excuses No FR apologist,No neo con spineless excuses.
Are we at war or not? Did 19 Saudi's kill 3,000 americans on 911 or what?
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