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Subject: GE, China's CSR to Invest $50 Million in U.S. Fast Rail Venture
YelliChink    12/7/2010 11:14:02 AM
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-07/ge-china-s-csr-to-invest-50-million-in-high-speed-rail-bid.html General Electric Co. and CSR Corp., China’s largest maker of rail vehicles, plan to invest $50 million in their U.S.-based venture for supplying passenger trains for high-speed lines in California and Florida.
 
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YelliChink       12/7/2010 11:18:04 AM
GE donated half million dollars to Obama campaign back in 2008.
 
 
And, giving credit to Herc, he indeed saw this way before all of us, despite being a total jerk most of the time.
 
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Nanheyangrouchuan       12/7/2010 4:19:52 PM
GE has successfully fought to allow more outsourcing of its work, including military, in China.  Now Chinese employees literally walk off with GE tech in broad daylight, in full view of GE guards.  Foreign managers dare not try to stop them.
 
GE has no high speed rail tech of its own, only some very restrictive sharing of Siemens tech.  China has successfully stolen rail tech from Germany, France and Japan and built its own system.  
 
Remember, the US has no high speed rail, thanks to decades of lobbying by the auto, cement, asphalt and airline industries. 
So all bidders are foreign and it sounds like the US is making foreign bidders partner with domestic companies, just like the Chinese and Indians do.
 
So don't whine.  Instead, ponder the wisdom of being reliant on the auto airline industries, especially the airlines in light of the Totally Stupid A*hole gropenfuerhers at our airports, put there by Bush II.
 
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Photon       12/8/2010 11:55:14 AM
Perhaps we may see more things like this Chinese & GE investment?  After all, merely buying up US treasury is going to become rather tiring in the long run.  Chinese may also want to diversify.  In addition to increasing its reserves with other international currencies like the Euro (but Euro will not replace the USD any time soon), also increase equities in its portfolio.
 
Also, the US is no longer as 'developed' as the latecomers, especially in the realm of infrastructure:  We do not have much to show for in everything ranging from high speed rail to high speed broadband.  In the meantime, neither the federal government nor Corporate America are in shape, let alone much inclination, to do much in the way of infrastructure investment.  Perhaps we need someone like China stepping in.
 
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Nanheyangrouchuan       12/8/2010 12:32:24 PM

Perhaps we may see more things like this Chinese & GE investment?  After all, merely buying up US treasury is going to become rather tiring in the long run.  Chinese may also want to diversify.  In addition to increasing its reserves with other international currencies like the Euro (but Euro will not replace the USD any time soon), also increase equities in its portfolio.

 

Also, the US is no longer as 'developed' as the latecomers, especially in the realm of infrastructure:  We do not have much to show for in everything ranging from high speed rail to high speed broadband.  In the meantime, neither the federal government nor Corporate America are in shape, let alone much inclination, to do much in the way of infrastructure investment.  Perhaps we need someone like China stepping in.



 
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YelliChink       12/8/2010 1:01:17 PM

So all bidders are foreign and it sounds like the US is making foreign bidders partner with domestic companies, just like the Chinese and Indians do.

 

So don't whine.  Instead, ponder the wisdom of being reliant on the auto airline industries, especially the airlines in light of the Totally Stupid A*hole gropenfuerhers at our airports, put there by Bush II.

a) GE pretty much make all the locomotive and most of the heavy railway components in the US. Among all the potential partners, they chose CSR corp. There will be very little problem if the partner is of French, German or Japanese origin. On the other hand, the US is still capable of developing its own HSR tech.

b) Don't worry. Once HSR system is built you will see TSA groping/zapping station waiting for you at HSR terminals. The people may be put in place by GWB, but the zappers and groping procedures are put there by Janet Napolitano. Oh, BTW, you know that the CEO of the back-scatter X-ray naked body zapper travelled with Obama on AFOne to India, right?
 
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YelliChink       12/8/2010 1:03:55 PM

  Perhaps we need someone like China stepping in.
Perhaps you want commies to have more influence in determining policy in your capital. Not a surprise. More and more liberals express that they want Washington DC function more like Beijing.
 
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Photon       12/8/2010 1:11:23 PM
YC:  Perhaps you want commies to have more influence in determining policy in your capital. Not a surprise. More and more liberals express that they want Washington DC function more like Beijing.
 
Not that I like the idea of Beijing gaining more influence over the D.C..
 
However, the problem is not Beijing.  The problem is us (and of course, the US).  This country needs major capital expenditures on infrastructure (we started out pretty early, but now a lot of our stuffs are aging and becoming outdated), but neither the federal government nor Corporate America are providing such.
 
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YelliChink       12/8/2010 2:00:20 PM


Not that I like the idea of Beijing gaining more influence over the D.C..


 

However, the problem is not Beijing.  The problem is us (and of course, the US).  This country needs major capital expenditures on infrastructure (we started out pretty early, but now a lot of our stuffs are aging and becoming outdated), but neither the federal government nor Corporate America are providing such.

Yes, some of the US infrastructure is aging and very outdated. Renewal and renovation is always underway.
 
In the case of broadband, the problem is that the US is VASTLY GIGANTIC compared to South Korea. Thus, wire-based cable system shouldn't be considered in the first place. Eventually most Americans will be on LTE or WiMAX based internet delivered via wireless communications. Yes, slower, but those systems make much more sense in terms of serviceable population, cost and return. The other problem is that cable is not very competitive business, as entering threshold is high and return is uncertain. The lack of competition *cough* Comcast *cough* resulted in near monopoly of the market. DSL market is much more competitive.
 
In the case of high speed railway system, it was debated within business and government on whether the investment would be profitable. From Taiwanese experience I would argue that it depends. It becomes a money pit and killed domestic aviation and bus business. The US population centers, except in the case of New England, are separated much farther away than metropolitan areas of Germany. The metropolitan population is also smaller in the US except for NYC, Chicago and LA, and all big three cities do not have satellite cities surround them like big cities in other parts of the world. And, unlike Japan, which have most of their traffic linearly on northern and southern coast lines, the US traffic span from coast to coast.
In the case of electrical network, that might be true. But replacing current system may not be as cost-effective than keep upgrading here and there, which means you have to stick with an electrical system that is combination of aging and top-notch tech. Otherwise, you need to pay higher rate on electricity so that banks can justify loans to power companies.

In all cases, you can't have major expenditure on infrastructure based on nothing. There needs market and profitable model behind every major public project. Otherwise you are just digging a money pit without a bottom. Bridge to nowhere can  assume the form other than a bridge.
 
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Photon       12/8/2010 6:28:29 PM
In the case of broadband, the problem is that the US is VASTLY GIGANTIC compared to South Korea. Thus, wire-based cable system shouldn't be considered in the first place ... The lack of competition *cough* Comcast *cough* resulted in near monopoly of the market. DSL market is much more competitive.
 
In the case of high speed railway system, it was debated within business and government on whether the investment would be profitable ... The metropolitan population is also smaller in the US except for NYC, Chicago and LA, and all big three cities do not have satellite cities surround them like big cities in other parts of the world. And, unlike Japan, which have most of their traffic linearly on northern and southern coast lines, the US traffic span from coast to coast.
Insofar as the GIGANTIC US is concerned, then 'state-izing' our economic policies will have to be something to consider.  The US will require 'urban' and 'rural' infrastructure models at the least.  (More breakdowns like factoring in local resource availability, climate region, etc.)  The former is for urbanized regions like the East and the West Coasts, while the latter for the rest.  But to do so, we will have to change our tax system so that each state has proportionally more purse to work with.  The federal government should concentrate on across the board stuffs like military, domestic security, social insurance, and similar issues, in which commonality is required.
 
We have more immediate hurdles though:  Plutocracy.  We have a laundry list which is not getting cleaned out and instead have become filthier:  a) Lack of campaign reforms, especially putting limits on campaign funding and ads (not terribly difficult to figure out why each successive political campaign spending keeps on bulging like a runaway erection); b) Deregulation (especially in the financial sector); c) Ever-widening income disparity (which increasingly resembles that from a 3rd world country) and the depletion of the middle class.  So, what we already have is a dysfunctional clusterf*ck in our own backyard and there is no sign of scooping it out before going further.  No wonder why the US is as constipated as ever.  'We the People' but in name only.
 
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