For a company that sells 50% more vehicles than Holden in Australia, (Toyota commands 23% market share whereas Holden only commands 14%) that is surprising news. How is it that Toyota's future is clouded in Australia when, over the next few years, Holden will virtually match Toyota's export numbers? Holden do sell more locally made vehicles than Toyota by a ratio of almost 2:1.

Also, how does the weak US dollar affect Japanese imports?

 

Silly you... don't you know that all Toyotas are made in the USA with US-sourced parts?

Most Americans believe this with all their hearts so it must be true.

THAT is how the USD affects Toyota.

 

I thought Toyota was an American company, I mean they are in NASCAR.

 

Look out America. This could just as easily happen to you!

 

Hey... thanks for the warning! Maybe someone will hear you...

Our dollar is plummeting to record lows against other currencies, making us look like "China, but with some brain-power".

We still have skilled tradespeople, university research galore, and lots of labor units available all over the US, but our labor pool is getting cheaper to hire and employ - especially for other countries.

You will see a huge influx of foreign investment in the US in the next few years as foreigners try to maximize their money spent by building manufacturing/assembly plants inside US borders. This is beneficial to them beacuse...
1) It gets them around many import tariffs and taxes on their goods
2) It can help reduce customs issues and charges
3) They get to advertise their product as being "American-Made" or at least assembled
4) It gets them local skilled labor at comparable or lower prices than they are paying in their native country
5) It gives them access to domestic resources (materials, people, technology, etc)

Heck, there will be some companies that will do exactly what we have been doing to China... they will come here and build plants to make parts/product, only to turn around and ship it back to their home country for sale.
Example of this.... FURNITURE. There are furniture plants sitting vacant all over NC, VA, and SC that have dust collection, conveying systems, and other infrastructure that was specifically designed to the plant/product. These plants are available for a song, and they are in areas where workers are desperate for jobs and they will work for very low wages. We have the national forrests galore around here, and Warehauser, Georgia-Pacific, and numerous other comapnies hold millions of acres of farmed wood in our states so the raw materials are here. We have everything but a company that wants to do it here. In the past, our high labor costs were the juggernaut so we closed the plants and sent the wood to China to have it processed into finished furniture then shipped back. If our dollar drops significantly against other industrialized nations, it makes our labor pool much cheaper than their own, making us a pretty good bargain as far as skilled tradespeople go - so the business could return, but it would likely be under foreign ownership.

Which begs another point.
Someone last week made the point that a cheaper dollar makes us appear as a better value to the world and moves manufacturing back to our shores.
I agree with this - but as with everything else, there is a catch.
I didn't have time to address it last week, but would like to do so now.

Here is the sad part... as our dollar goes cheaper, it makes it even THAT much more of a bargain for outsiders to basically "buy" us Americans in every way... properties, investments, our companies, our Treasury (in T-Bills, T-notes, bonds, etc), everything really. Even my example above has a negative in that the foreign company comes in and buys the vacant plant, property, and any assets tied thereto for their operation. That is another piece of US property that belongs to someone else now.

Think about this... some big Japanese bank is looking to invest in an American lending institution (like Bank of America for example). Our housing market is in a major slump right now, and many of the biggest lenders are getting killed by low-volume of housing starts, not many used housing sales due to rising interest rates, and the huge number of defaulted loans (foreclosures) that are hitting everywhere. The stock price of this huge lender falls drastically because of all these conditions. The Japanes company buys the embattled US lender for pennys-on-the-dollar. NOW - the Japanese lender literally owns all of the real holdings that were listed under the US-lender's assets. If you happen to be paying on a home that was financed by the American company that got bought out, your home is now owned by a Japanese bank (until you pay them off anyways). This is happening every day... private homes, small businesses, large companies, even braches of the government are being taken over by foreign investors, and the weaker our dollar gets, the more power it gives THEM to buy us up at discount prices.
If you knew how many homes, properties, and assets we "think" are ours but actually belong to someone from another country, I think youd be dumb-founded.

So think about these issues when we go buying that Chinese crap at WalMart this Christmas. Is your $17.97 plastic illuminated Santa hanging from the chimney that was made in China REALLY necessary? Is it WORTH it?
IS this war in Iraq worth $1-billion a week when we don't have it to spend?
IS the war in Afghanistan worth $1-billion a month when we don't have it?
IS that $7995 Kia REALLY so much better of a deal than a $8995 Aveo?
IS that new Tundra truely a "better deal" than a Sierra or F150?

Saddening to me what our people have allowed to happen to us.

 

Who cares if a Japanese company buys a furniture plant in NC or Rockefeller center? its not like they can move it to Japan. It will ALWAYS be here and therefore always be subject to US laws and taxation, regardless of who owns it.

Other than for national security concerns, there no reason to oppose foreign investment in the US. PP's post smacks of protectionism.

Nobody mentioned the low US dollar happens to help our exports be more competitive overseas. It is no coincidence that the trade deficit is way down this year, almost totally on the increase in exports due to the weaker dollar.

The weak dollar is not a good thing, but its not all bad either.

Frankly I don't have a problem with importing cheap trinket crap into Wal-Mart. We have less than 5% unemployment nationally.....so there's not exactly enough labor to go around for us to make EVERYTHING in the US. I'd rather export the low wage jobs and keep the good ones. You're not going to be able to make money making trinkets here anyway, because you'll spend too much on labor costs and price your product out of the market.

Ultimately the current system provides the greatest variety of goods for consumers at the lowest prices, meaning you and I can live a higher standard of living on less money, and that is a good thing.

The caveat to that is the unhealthy trade relationship with China and the fact we let them flood us with goods but block our exports almost totally.

 

It's also not like they have to leave it there and use it either. They can choose to gut the building, take all the equipment to Tokyo, and use the site as a storage or dump if they so choose. How's that going to help us? Driving down property values around it... killing tax base... assets removed... THEIR CHOICE.

DISAGREE.
I never said there should be any governing intervention or policy dictation anywhere in my post.
I was simply trying to demonstrate a situation in which the declining dollar affords foreign countries and investors a "discount" on US property and merchandise, and how it can be a double-edged sword - no more, no less. Even said it in the post.

So why did you go to the extreme and throw "protectionism" at my post?
If anything, you are agreeing with more than half of what I am saying, just in your own words.



You must not have read my post well, because that is almost EXACTLY what I said... in many ways. What do you think I listed 5 ways that a low-dollar brings foreign business to our country for? I'll grant you, I did not specifically say that domestic manufacturers gets a benefit too, but in my business there is more often a benefit to an offshore company that is looking to buy capital (presses, ovens, automation, robots, etc). A German company stands to get a much better "deal" on that type of equipment if they buy it (or even have their designs fabricated) in the USA under a weak dollar as opposed to buying it in Europe on a strong Euro. To me, that is the same as a domestic manufacturer "exporting" their goods to an offshore company, or as you said - "exporting". I just wrote in the context of the buyer instead of the seller.

Which was EXACTLY the theme of my post.
First half of my post was "good" reasons that bring investment dollars into our economy.
Second half was "bad" reasons why investors can get serious capital and equity for fractions of their true value and then do what they like with the assets.
I quote myself... "Someone last week made the point that a cheaper dollar makes us appear as a better value to the world and moves manufacturing back to our shores. I agree with this - but as with everything else, there is a catch. ...Here is the sad part... as our dollar goes cheaper, it makes it even THAT much more of a bargain for outsiders to basically "buy" us Americans in every way"

This is where we have a true difference in opinions. I think it is detrimental to our economy for our people to buy billions of dollars worth of "trinkets" (I prefer to call it "sh1+") every year only to throw it away, wasting all the resources to make it and struggle with landfill space to gobble it all up too. We would be BETTER to simply give China a few billion dollars and not waste the world's resources and materials. Making the sh1+, packaging the sh1+, shipping it to USA ports on a boat, rail and trucking it all over the USA, putting it on shelves in an HVAC-controlled store that is as big as a stadium, driving it home... all so we can sit it out a few weeks and let the lead-based paint fade on it or let it dry-rot in storage so we can turn around and throw it away and pass the burden along to waste management. WHAT A WASTE.
Make your haloween decorations from pumpkins, hay, old clothes, and other natural goods available in your own yard, town, or rural areas, use natural and biodegradable goods when possible, and stop feeding the Chinese Dragon!
It DOES hurt us, and it IS bad for us, and it IS feeding the Chinese economy. It goes back to my post last week about our dollar falling and the Chinese/Japanese financing our "war on an adjective"... OUR CREDIT IS SPENT... WE ARE BROKE!!!
I also challenge your statement about us "keeping the good jobs here while making trinkets is cheap and should go elsewhere." Do you know how much $$$ goes into making injection molds? Do you think tool and die makers are "cheap"? Machinists? Who designs this tooling? Who designs the machines to run the tooling? Who builds the tools and machines? Who builds the packaging for the "trinkets"? Who does the shipping and logistics? Who does distribution planning and scheduling?
You see, you look at the cheap labor unit standing there putting trinkets in a box, where I look at the entire picture, and I see something VASTLY different than a cheap machine operator when I see "trinkets" in a happy meal or on a shelf at WalMart. Just as much goes into making a "trinket" as goes into the injection-molded parts on your LS1, except one part sits in the yard for a few months and goes into the landfill while the other goes into your engine and runs for 10 years or more. Think SERIOUSLY about that.

Provided you have a decent job, of which there are fewer and fewer available to the average Joe.
Earnings are down, raises are down, inflation is up, cost of living is up, healthcare costs are soaring, fuel costs have outstripped earnings by a landslide, foreclosures are at all-time highs, credit is at record lows, people are carrying record debt, and 2005 marked the first time since the Great Depression that our nation actually spent more than they earned and had a negative savings rate (and THIS includes rich people too - its a national average!). I guess the entire nation decided to just go ahead and "splurge" that year.
I'm glad you are doing well, and I myself am still doing well too. But don't be fooled into thinking that just because a few of us have made it that everyone in our country is so fortunate. Despite your outlook, the economic picture for our country is NOT a pretty one, now or in the near future. Just how much debt do you think s acceptable... personally, locally, nationally?

Ageed 100%
Same goes with Japan. They refuse to allow GM or Ford to build a car plant on their soil, so we decide to allow them to bring their sh1+ here on boats, and build car plants on our soil anyways. We're such good guys in the USA!
BTW... who won WWII again? And who paid billions to rebuild the Japanese economy? Oh yeah... the gullible ones.

 

Just felt the need to add to the post above...

So I read in this morning's news...
Number of US Homes Facing Foreclosure Doubles in Third Quarter
"A total of 446,726 homes nationwide were targeted by some sort of foreclosure activity from July to September, up 100.1 percent from 223,233 properties in the year-ago period, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc."

"Nevada reported one foreclosure filing for every 61 households..."

""Given the number of loans due to reset through the middle of 2008, and the continuing weakness in home sales, we would expect foreclosure activity to remain high and even increase over the next year in many markets," he said."

If this kind of data does not get a person thinking seriously about our economy and what credit is doing to us, I don't know what kind of "wake-up" call a person needs. This is not a "good" sign in any way.

As I was saying 2 posts up, this kind of market makes it a windfall for foreign investors. A moderately wealthy foreigner could come in and buy some incredible properties for pennies on the dollar of value.

Worse yet, think about the families that are being forced out of their homes, their cost incurred, the money they have inadvertantly thrown-away, and what is happening to their financial lives, retirements, etc. Sounds like more burden for our economy to carry down the road, rather than have these families piling money into retirement accounts, investments, savings, etc where it should be going.

These folks are NOT buying new cars and trucks to fuel the economy.
They are not buying durable goods to fuel the economy.
They are not buying big-ticket items to fuel the economy.
They are back to "survival mode" and are being "pulled-by" the economy instead.

Just wait until we see the 3rd quarter sales of new vehicles...
Chrysler is to announce layoffs shortly, and Ford resumes talks with the UAW.

There is certainly a benefit to a weak dollar in selling our goods to offshore entities, but is that gain worth the domestic price we pay?
It's not worth it IMO to be able to send a few Chevys and Fords to Japan on a boat.