America on the Selling Block

Yeungling.

We import more than we export.
We live on credit and the American dollar is backed by nothing. It is a piece of paper.

The British financed much of the economic expansion of this country in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the Saudi's and other oil countries in the '70's and the Japanese in the '80's went on a buying spree for businesses and real estate in the US. We have always encouraged other countries to open themselves up to investments by US companies, so what is the crisis if foreign companies are induced to reciprocate? Capital flows have never known national boundaries (except for currency restrictions due to foreign exchange controls, or to protect defense industries). This nativist hand-wringing is unbecoming to our great and open economy, much akin to the anti-immigrant fervor sweeping though the more self-destructive elements of the Republican party. The rise of that poisonous nativism killed the UAE effort to buy US port facilities, and the Chinese oil company's attempt to buy UNOCAL; but what does such foreign ownership matter? The ownership of capital is not the real concern; the financing of economic growth and creation of US jobs are. And the answer to that? As Bill Clinton told Bush #41, "it's the economy, stupid".