LAT - Border Net has Become a Noose

[DBoon]

Controls on foreign visitors sicne 9/11 is costing the US economy big money, and may affect our ability to remain competitive in the long run.


See:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-visas16oct16,1,308493.story?coll=la-home-world

Quoting:

... Business executives have been reluctant to protest too loudly because no one wants to be accused of opening the door to the next terrorist attack on American soil. But throughout the country's increasingly globalized economy, concern is growing over the costs of a security-driven foreign policy.

U.S. and foreign hospitals are building medical centers in cities such as Singapore and Shanghai for wealthy patients who no longer can or want to travel to the United States. New regulations threaten to crimp commerce along the U.S.-Mexico border. Experts in the cutting-edge technologies that are likely to drive growth in the 21st century face long waits for visas, or outright rejection. Instead of attending the best U.S. schools, foreign graduate students are heading to Britain and Australia.

Wealthy foreigners are shopping, buying vacation homes and investing elsewhere. That has contributed to a plunge in direct foreign investment in the United States, which dropped to $40 billion last year from $72 billion the year before, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

[da_chimperor]

1. Damn, this is pretty bad

I always thought that our paranoia would cost us money, but this is really serious. It just goes to show that the US needs the rest of the world more than they need us.

[German-Lefty]

2. Hmm, does this tie into petro-dollar recycling?

There have been a lot of topics on this subject. Basically the US depends on oil producers and other countries loaning our dollars back to us, to keep the dollar from sinking due to our federal and trade deficits.

That $72B->$40B decrease in US investment could have more than one cause. It could be due to a loss of confidence in the US economy and dollar based assets.