The majority of Americans fear the U.S. economy and national security could be hurt if sovereign wealth funds, the investment arms of foreign governments, put more money into U.S. companies, new data show. U.S. voters do not want these funds, which currently manage between $1.9 trillion and $2.9 trillion, to buy stakes in high tech firms, banks, oil and gas companies and ports, a study released on Thursday by the business advisory group Public Strategies said.
As foreign governments in Asia and the Mideast have been making
multibillion-dollar investments in United States companies such as Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, it has largely flown under the radar of most Americans, a recent survey found. But the same survey also suggested that Americans are disposed to view such deals negatively for the United States economy and national security, a development that could pose a challenge for further investments from foreign government-run funds, known as sovereign wealth funds.
WASHINGTON — Americans don't know much about investments in the U.S. by sovereign-wealth funds — the investment arms of foreign governments. But what they hear, they don't like, according to a poll by political-consulting firm Public Strategies Inc.
By ratios ranging between 2 to 1 and 7 to 1, those polled opposed such investments in U.S. auto makers, high-tech companies, banks, oil companies and ports. The purchases of small stakes in banking giant Citigroup Inc. by government investment funds in Singapore, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, produced a similarly lopsided result: 56% opposed, compared with only 8% in favor.
February 21, 2008
Senior Strategist Dan Bartlett appears on CNBC Power Lunch to discuss our recent survey on U.S. Voter attitudes toward sovereign-wealth funds.
Dan Bartlett, who as White House counselor was one of President Bush's closest aides, is heading back to Texas after several months of mulling job opportunities, he said last night.
Bartlett is joining Public Strategies, a national strategic communications firm headquartered in Austin. He will rejoin Mark McKinnon, Bush's longtime media adviser and the company's vice chairman.
Dan Bartlett, former counselor to President Bush, plans to announce Monday that he is moving to Texas to join Public Strategies Inc., one of the nation's best-connected public affairs firms, according to Republican sources.
Former White House Counselor Dan Bartlett plans to return to the state where he started his career as a youthful aide to George W. Bush more than a decade ago.
He's becoming a senior strategist for Public Strategies Inc., an Austin
consulting firm with ties to players in both major political parties.
DALLAS, TX: The biggest leveraged buyout in history was notable not only for its finances, but for its unusual feature of having multiple PR firms advising both sides of the deal simultaneously.
Public Strategies president and CEO Jeff Eller said his agency "assisted in the coordination of the communication effort" on the buyer side, and added that all the work was done "with the full knowledge of all involved."
January 31, 2007
Public Strategies Vice Chair Mark McKinnon on MSNBC
A group of political strategists who have spent years firing heavy artillery at each other came together at the Hay-Adams Hotel yesterday, put aside their weapons, decried the polarized state of debate in America and vowed a new approach to peaceful coexistence.
WASHINGTON — Media adviser Mark McKinnon, a top strategist in George W.Bush's bruising 2000 presidential campaign against John McCain, has committed to working for the Arizona senator if he runs for president again in 2008, a top GOP consultant confirmed Tuesday. McKinnon called himself "a fan of Senator McCain," but said that any talk about working for a McCain presidential bid is "a hypothetical wrapped in a triple caveat."
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