Listen to Anthony Pratt for half an hour and it is easy to wonder why every Australian manufacturer is not flocking to the United States to do business. Pratt singles out the American entrepreneurial spirit, cheap energy, and its deep financial markets as key factors in the success of his family's packaging empire.

"America has been the best balance between growth and sovereign risk. China has had a lot of growth but there is a lot of sovereign risk. It [the US] is the home of capitalism because of its ability to regenerate … America's natural resource is the entrepreneurial spirit," Pratt told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit.