I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
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Matt McCarten’s article in the Herald on Sunday this morning was appalling.
Matt McCarten: Foreign owners muscle in as New Zealand sells off all its assets
He is only focussed on symptoms and interventionism. He does not cover any of the basic underlying issues.
The big reason that foreign companies are buying up New Zealand companies is that they have savings, therefore money is invested in businesses. Once they have exhausted their own supply of businesses to invest in they of course look elsewhere. As dividends are repatriated they move into a virtuous circle (for them).
To say that we should have more restriction on foreign ownership seems like the boy with his finger in the dam. Surely the answer is to create incentives for saving and investment. We should be investing money both here and globally, earning and returning funds back to New Zealand for further investment. We need to start the positive cycle.
Our leaders and wannabe leaders need to lead. Writing this alarmist drivel without real analysis or solution proposition serves nobody.
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If the Economy was a Game of Rugby……
Rod has some good comments on Matt McCarten’s article in the Herald on Sunday about Foreign ownership.
If a country’s economy battling against the rest of the world was a game of rugby then restricting foreign ownership is an all defensive …
The problem is really that NZers don’t make enough money to keep up. That’s been coming for quite some years now, and dead investment in property isn’t going to help - it’ll only benefit the overseas landlords. McCarten does have a point but it could’ve been phrased better as you say.