Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Michael Perelman wrote:
>
> >Wouldn't it make sense for governments to use some of these funds to buy
> >up physical assets in United States rather than to hold relatively low
> >yielding financial instruments?
>
> They could theoretically buy stocks, which are claims on real assets,
> but that's pretty risky, and who wants to gamble with the FX
> reserves? And physical assets have to be managed - who wants to do
> that? Ick.
>
Didn't the Japanese buy up an immense amount of u.s. real estate in the '80s, so much that various 'nativists' were getting upset about a Japanese 'plot' to control land etc in the u.s.? And didn't they have to sell most of this land at a loss later on?
Carrol