All of us in the US have heard this BS about P&O selling it’s port rights to the United Arab Amerates. (Spelling?). Did you know that CSX sold their port rights to the same company back in 04???How does everyone feel about this deal?
I’m not real happy about either of them.(this isn’t off topic because CSX did it first, so it’s kind of a train thing…)
Loathar,
It’s worse. (Go next door to the TRAINS Forum. I posted a thread titled:
John Snow: Possible Investigation regarding past CSX dealings.
Business executives look for opportunites to make their companies profitable (as this also helps them receive more bonuses and perks) but my sadly, corporate executives will make, what seem to be insane decisions, all in the name of profit.
Before John Snow received his current high ranking job position with the government, CSX apparently made a very questionable arrangement with him. Instead of receiving compensation for 15 years of service, he would be reclassified as having 40 years of service! Thus, guaranteeing him over $2 Million dollars in compensation. I’m not sure if that’s per year of retirement or one time. Yet, many CSX mainlines are in need of repair, and locomotive crews put up with filthy toilets in new locomotives because CSX management often claims that it just doesn’t have the money for additonal services or repairs.
Snow, who is now pushing for the port deal to go through may be at a “Conflict of Interest” as he still making money from his past CSX dealings. A few people are now bringing this up to light. Will anything be done about it?
Guys, no need to get political as things like this are happening to both our political parties. Remember; it’s not just CSX but the entire corporate American structure that has changed over the past 2 decades. I’ve witnessed the sad change. [V]
Keep in mind that many of today’s executives were the young people from the 60s and 70s during the era in which many basic morals and values were deemed as “uncool, too restraining, and not progressive”. Many business colleges were pushing the “Go get em”, be ruthless, be tough, unions are greedy–bust them and maximize profits" mind set. Ethics classes were often considered a joke. Fast forward to
Is it true that Walthers is offering the Port of Milwaukee for sale, but so far no one is buying because they are asking full MSRP?
I listen to Bortz, Liddy and Savage. Probably too much. I’m getting a little cynical these days.
MB- Good Walthers crack![:D]
Mr. B,
Beautiful, I think you may take the humor posting award for March.[:D][:D][:D]
Glad I wasn’t drinking anything while reading your post-probably would have sprayed the computer with coffee![tup]
Jon
Full MSRP? I’m gonna start looking for port facilities on ebay. But only if the seller accepts paypal.
You can get it at Mall-Wart for $1.98. [}:)][:D][:D]
P and O is the British company that had the contracts to manage the ports currently in question. My understanding is that P&O wanted to sell the contracts and the company from the UAE, specifically Dubai, put in a bid to take over the contracts. Evidently CSX had management contracts for some other ports which they sold before. If Loathars information is correct and CSX sold the contracts to the same UAE company back on 2004, then evidently some US ports have been managed by this Arab company for close to 2 years already. I think most of us would be amazed at the foreign ownership of percieved American assets. Dunkin Donuts is British owned. Think of the effect on US police forces if they were infiltrated (the shoe bomber was a Brit) and contanimated donuts were sold!
I believe that the ports that CSX sold were not located in the US (see:
http://www.dpa.co.ae/news/news_24.html).
This is a tough issue. On the one hand, I’m concerned that it will be easier for terrorists to infiltrate a UAE company than a British one. On the other hand, UAE has been a solid American ally and nixing this deal simply because the buyers are Arabs isn’t going to go over too well in the Middle East.
Finally, on some level you could argue that this is a big concern over nothing. After all, sealing our ports won’t do any good as long as we have a southern border that is so porous that close to a million people are able to sneak across it every year yet when can’t discuss improving security because that would be racially insensitive.
its emirates loathar 
just letting you know
Ok, then i’ll reinsert my opinion (i’d deleted it for fear that it might cause some war)
While I feel better if the US owns its own gateways, I feel Dubai needs as good a chance as London.
Loathar, its emirates.
As a retired C&O Engineer, nothing John Snow could possibly do against the working class or our country would suprise me., If money is involved. J Johnson
First off, nobody’s selling the ports. They’re selling the contractual right to manage some terminals within the ports. The ports will remain the property of whoever owns them now, most likely various port authorities. It’s analogous to an office (terminal) and an office building (port). You can sub-let all or some of your office space w/o affecting the ownership of the office building. Security is still determined by the US govt and provided by US Govt agencies (Coast Guard and Customs, mainly).
As for the wisdom of the deal, we are engaged ina war w/ terrorists. They are extra-national and may or may not be locatable in a given country. This is a new kind of war and, while many of its needs are traditional some new approaches and methods will have to be developed. One of the traditional needs that still applies is the need for allies to provide basing springboards for military operations. How much sense does it make to reject one of the longer standing allies in the region?
I’m not going to get into a Jihad here…I pretty much trust anyone except them.
I just wonder how much this is going to jack up the price of our Chinese train stuff.[:O]
I saw a bunch of locos today from Atlas,Bach, and BLI that all said “made in China” on the boxes.[V]
I doubt it will have much of an impact. Importing products into the US incur costs at several levels. Transportation, brokerage fees and import duties. The costs that the shipper will pay for the right to dock and unload in a given port are buried in the transportation fees. There are many many choices of shipping method. As there are many shipping ports. If one port increases its fees then shippers will use another port. Depending on the value of the shipment customs brokerage fees and import duties are often higher than the actual transportation cost. The free marktet works with shipping as well and it is a very competetive market. As a result of this, many containers that used to come to the US direct, now go to ports in Mexico where fees are much lower than the US. The containers are then trucked into the US. This is particularoy evident on the West coast.