Much of what is called investment is actually nothing more than mergers and acquisitions, and of course mergers and acquisitions are generally accompanied by downsizing.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The corporate killer downsizing is directly responsive to what the mutual funds have wanted.
Investing is a business where you can look very silly for a long period of time before you are proven right.
Venture capitalists buy minority positions in young companies they think will grow quickly; buy-out investors buy most or all of companies they think can be turned around by fixing a few basic things.
We continue to look at accretive and synergistic acquisitions both in the domestic as well as international markets. Our emphasis, thus, will be on strategic acquisitions, and we will not be doing it just for the sake of making our name bigger.
But in the past, US companies have been able to increase their profits through downsizing in the US, through colonizing other people's resources, and through the increase of globalization.
In a globalized world, one application can spread like wildfire and there's only one winning company, which means you have to invest more than you've ever had.
Finance is critical. If sufficient investment is made in infrastructure and venture capital is made available, there will be a big improvement in the situation.
To me it's incontrovertible that investment in people, investment in business, creates jobs; they don't destroy jobs.
Simply put, investors should own less equities, more bonds, more global investments, more cash and more dry ammunition.
Investment is crucial. Because the truth is, you only get jobs and growth in the economy when people invest money, at their own risk, in setting up a business or expanding an existing business.