| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
 Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:40 pm Post subject: New $1 Billion Embassy in London |
 |
|
| Quote: |
The State Department has unveiled its plans for an extravagant new embassy in London, an expensive crystal cube that features a 100-foot moat among its defenses -- but the hi-tech hive is already facing angry salvos from fuming taxpayer watchdogs.
The new structure, reported by the Times of London to cost $1 billion, would set a glittering jewel in the crown of American presence abroad, even as soaring deficits and unemployment continue to threaten the economy at home. |
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/24/new-billion-embassy-london-called-ridiculous-waste-taxpayer-money/
Ron Paul asks Clinton about it:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/51883.html
^ Video in link.
| Quote: |
Hillary�s response to Ron Paul�s request that she justify the billion dollar expense for the construction of our new glass fortress in London has me kicking myself for my lifelong ignorance. To Ron Paul�s question �You have to say that that billion dollars will have to be more debt, because where are you going to save it [in the budget]?� Hillary responded �We are selling eleven sites that we currently rent at very high cost in London to consolidate in one building, and therefore the money that we gain from the sale of these buildings will be used to fund the embassy, so we�re not asking for additional or new money�so I believe I can make the case that we�re not asking for new money on that.�
All those years I spent as a young man renting houses, unaware that I could have simply sold my landlord�s property and used the proceeds to finance my next habitation! What a fool I was!
The embassy design is real pretty, though. Perhaps it may inspire our State Department to recall the maxim �People who live in glass houses shouldn�t throw stones.�
...
The new crystal fortress would be the most expensive embassy ever built, easily topping America's sprawling compound in Iraq, which cost taxpayers some $700 million and was completed over-budget and years behind schedule. A new embassy in Pakistan is projected to cost $850 million. |
I hope she made an error. You can't sell what you rent. Unless they rent from themselves? Given the intergovernmental holdings of debt, I wouldn't put it past them.
Anyways, there is something Roman about this. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:50 pm Post subject: Re: New $1 Billion Embassy in London |
|
|
| mises wrote: |
I hope she made an error. You can't sell what you rent. Unless they rent from themselves? Given the intergovernmental holdings of debt, I wouldn't put it past them.
Anyways, there is something Roman about this. |
She probably meant to say leasing not renting. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:02 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Leasing from whom? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:05 pm Post subject: Re: New $1 Billion Embassy in London |
|
|
| blade wrote: |
| mises wrote: |
I hope she made an error. You can't sell what you rent. Unless they rent from themselves? Given the intergovernmental holdings of debt, I wouldn't put it past them.
Anyways, there is something Roman about this. |
She probably meant to say leasing not renting. |
Yeah, I don't think it was a month-to-month arrangement. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:27 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| mises wrote: |
| Leasing from whom? |
How should I know? I don't work for the state department. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:29 pm Post subject: |
|
|
What difference would leasing vs renting make. How can you sell an asset you are leasing/renting? Are they leasing from themselves? Huh?
Maybe she meant the operating costs were high? Dunno.
1 billion dollars. There is absolutely no hope that Hope and Change will change their ways until a funding crisis hits (which may have already started). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| mises wrote: |
What difference would leasing vs renting make. How can you sell an asset you are leasing/renting? Are they leasing from themselves? Huh?
Maybe she meant the operating costs were high? Dunno.
|
With leasing you do often have the option to sell that lease to a third party without the landlords consent. For example my Mother was left a property in England by her uncle but she couldn't do anything with the property because her uncle had leased it to a family for twenty years. The family who had the lease were legally allowed to sell the lease on if they so wished. After twenty years all property rights would then revert to my mother. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
The billion is going to come from selling lease liabilities (at a substantial loss)? I appreciate your speculation but can't imagine those numbers would work.
Clinton was blowing smoke up his arse.
Shall we all guess how over budget the project will run? I'll guess 650%. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Yes, we sold the present embassy to some Qatari developer for a billion dollars. She wasn't talking out of her ass. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Well, it isn't clear how much we sold it for, but here is the article. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:06 pm Post subject: |
|
|
From BB's link:
| Quote: |
The United States has agreed to sell its embassy building in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, to Qatari Diar, the sovereign wealth-backed developer, for an undisclosed sum.
The US State Department said that it will sell the Chancery building, home to the US Embassy in Britain for almost half a century, to the property investment company owned by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).
The building was worth an estimated �500 million at the peak of the market in July 2007 when Qatari Diar was first linked with a possible purchase. However, the building is now thought to be worth less after a 45 per cent decline in commercial property values.
|
Ok. It was worth 275 million. We're still far from 1 billion.
Also, did Clinton mix up lease and own? I'd figure she'd have a good working knowledge of issues related to real estate. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Reggie
Joined: 21 Sep 2009
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
It's embarrassing that the people who work there feel they need a 100 foot moat! A MOAT??? How absurd. The little buildings out front with TSA style inspections and guards shouting, "NO PICTURES. NOOOOOO PICTURES!!!!" should be more than enough already.
I saw tons of Americans walking around London (and I was one of them) and none of us needed a moat or guards shouting about no pictures. Somehow we get by. They need to grow up. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:56 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Reggie wrote: |
| It's embarrassing that the people who work there feel they need a 100 foot moat! A MOAT??? How absurd. |
Agreed. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:03 am Post subject: |
|
|
| mises wrote: |
Also, did Clinton mix up lease and own? I'd figure she'd have a good working knowledge of issues related to real estate. |
No, according to some other article I read, the US leases the property from the British gov't (for hardly anything). It is the only US embassy that isn't owned by the US gov't. So I guess the US sold the lease to the qatari developer? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
