Does "capital" refer to machines and equipment used in manufacturing?

[Boojatta]

Perhaps senior managers are responding to American critics of "capitalism" by moving the "capital" (along with the manufacturing jobs) away to places that are outside America and far from the critics.

[DavidMS]

1. From a Accounting perspective

IIRC, its labeled Property, Plant & Equipment. Also known as fixed assets.

On the bright side, given the slide in the dollar. We will soon see more countries outsourcing to us.

[Jim__]

2. They're responding to American critics of "capitalism" by moving the "capital" to China ???

I guess that makes as much sense as anything else they do.

[Terry in Austin]

3. The "capital" in "capitalism"

"Capital" refers to money loaned or invested in expectation of an acceptable return at an acceptable level of risk.

Basically, it's spare cash that you rent out.

Capital has been internationally mobile for as long as the nation-state system has been in place, say 400 years. Some historians trace the interaction of capital and territorial powers, noting a pattern: states borrow very heavily when they rise in prominence, competing with others for mobile capital, and the nation that lends to them most heavily eventually succeeds them as the pre-eminent one.

Hegemony went from the Dutch, then to Britain, then the U.S., and now, apparently, China. In each case, the rising hegemon held a huge amount of the declining hegemon's debt.