EURO-AMERICAN BANKRUPT
COMPANIES ARE LEPERS, ASIANS BE WARY!
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Leper
Companies, Inc. could very well describe the so many huge corporate entities in
the West that are now expectantly waiting for some investors to breath fresh
life into them. The compass of that search points to Asia
as the source of the badly needed ‘smart money’.
What
a mess indeed had Western economies turned into, as their respective
enterprises have been crashing to bankruptcy levels after liberal policies have
become granite rock in them since the Thatcher-Reagan era. De-industrialization,
massive loss of jobs, and measly investments in S&T have made elephants out
of huge companies such as the once mighty Bethlehem Steel.
“Bankruptcy!
Bankruptcy!” would be an apt line in a classic opera production in New York and
London, save that even classic opera groups of the West might even go the
bankruptcy route. From manufacturing to culture industry, inclusive of Hollywood stalwarts, Western companies are going down the
drain one after the other.
Insatiably
greedy financiers are of course waiting in the wings to dip their hands into
those crashing industries, waiting for the moment to buy them at dirt cheap
prices. They did that after the 2nd world war, a war that the global
oligarchy created, when they bought so many European factories at rummage sale.
Their war chest had been reinforced by slash funds past $3 Trillions circa 2007
yet, so they’re ready for the ‘ukay-ukay’ transactions any time (‘ukay-ukay’ is
Filipino term for re-sale of used clothes at cheap dirt prices).
The
same financier oligarchs did the rummage buying spree on former Soviet bloc
economies’ flattened factories groups, with mafia groups joining the fray for
purchase of the rummage sales. At one instance in the early 90s, Russia’s mafia
groups owned and controlled 80% of the rummage industries, thus prompting
patriotic KGB chekka to replace then
incumbent president Yeltsin, a puppet of the financier oligarchs, with Putin.
Asia
has been the undisputed driver of the global economy more so when both USA and Europe
began burning economically as early as 2007. Logically, the compass of SOS for
fresh investments and loans would be Asia
notably the China-Korea-ASEAN-India corridor.
The
involvement of the Indian group Mittal in purchasing Alcelor of Europe is
classic case of Asian buys. Bookkeeping accounts seemed to have served Mittal
right then, with the merger not exactly draining down the stock value of Mittal
in the bourses. Mittal-Alcelor came to be born as the largest steel producer,
churning out a total volume of 100 tons of steel every year (toppling Korea’s POSCO
as top producer).
That
was then. The times have quite changed in an era when changes happen so
rapidly. Western enterprises, notably those of the USA’s and EU’s, are magnets for
perceptions of being leper corporations. Getting associated with them could
burn down an Asian company’s own par value, and whether the trend could be reversible
is something that is tantamount to launching a Herculean PR campaign to reduce
negative perceptions owing to buy-ins/mergers.
Enormous
window dressings have to be applied to the accounts of the leper companies too
so as to sweeten their toxically sour values and make them more palatable to
Asian investors. Whether Asia’s negotiating
agents are naïve to the window dressings is something worth researching.
Caucasians
still have that perception—conscious and/or unconscious—of Asians as “monkeys
with no tails” (subhumans) who can be lured into traps without the latter
noticing it. Western financier oligarchs led by the likes of the UK-Netherlands
royal houses and Rothschild empire will brook no quarters in condescending on
Asians who they regard as cattle or eaters worth controlling, subordinating as
Mandingos, and short-changing in business transactions.
Such
a perception hasn’t changed. Look at how the Indian executives of Mittal et al are perceived in Europe
today not just by the oligarchs but by the White executives in their payroll. Why
don’t you examine case studies in Western business schools and find out for
yourself whether Asian groups are worth studying at all in the West. It’s the
same old Victorian perception of racial hubris and arrogance at work!
That
may just be what western ‘corporate social responsibility’ is all about: to
continue derisively condescending at former Asian colonies by dangling carrots
to poor communities in Asian backyards. In exchange, Asian ‘smart money’ moves
to the West to ensure that leper companies keep on churning out more funds, with
1% of the profits later to allocated for ‘corporate social responsibility’.
Is
that what we can regard as an impeccable fair exchange?
[Philippines, 13
August 2010]
