Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Let's sell them our stuff and get some dollars back
Regular readers will know that I strongly endorse this point of view:
Hillary Clinton test-marketed worry about "sovereign wealth funds" at last week's Nevada debate, but the polls didn't jump and neither did her Democratic rivals. Give her and her fellow political professionals credit for quickly moving on to the more politically remunerative issue of a droopy economy.
There is wisdom here. Dollars are dollars. Unless we want to ruin our currency, we have no business limiting its usefulness to foreigners after we've traded it for oil or DVD players. Off-hand, it's hard to think of a more benign use for money they earn than taking equity stakes in U.S. businesses. Would we prefer they spent it patronizing the global arms industry, especially after this week's temperamental market ructions?
The dollars we send to dictators for oil and Chinese companies for underwear, toys, and pretty much anything else have to come home somehow, someway. We should sell foreigners as many of our assets at stupidly high prices as possible.
9 Comments:
By 
SR, at
Wed Jan 23, 09:25:00 AM:
Didn't the Japanese buy Rockefeller Center a few years back only to have to dump it in a fire sale?
By Georg Felis, at
Wed Jan 23, 09:40:00 AM:
We could put Pelosi and Hillary up for sale on Ebay. I dont think that would raise much money, but it would be a great boost for the US economy.
By 
, at
Wed Jan 23, 11:59:00 AM:
So you want a Saudi or a ChiCom boss?
Consider the effect on freedom of the press, with Murdoch having a substantial Saudi investor.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Wed Jan 23, 01:51:00 PM:
Or, to paraphrase George Carlin, "let's sell them our shit, so we can buy more stuff."
By , at
Wed Jan 23, 08:50:00 PM:
"Consider the effect on freedom of the press, with Murdoch having a substantial Saudi investor."
They're either competitive, by adapting to American methods of business, (say what you want about America, but we know business) or they drive their new assets into the ground and resell them back to us in the future. Sounds good to me.
By TigerHawk, at
Wed Jan 23, 09:41:00 PM:
Exactly, Dawnfire. Either way we get their money which we get to spend on more oil and underwear and such.
By Andrewdb, at
Wed Jan 23, 11:20:00 PM:
I recall George Meany (head of the AFL-CIO) used to say we should sell all sorts of things to the foreigners, and then nationalize it like they do to us. What are they going to do, take that Iowa farmland back to Japan?
By TigerHawk, at
Wed Jan 23, 11:22:00 PM:
Andrewdb - Yeah, well, that only works once. After that, you had better hope that you do not need them to take your fiat money.
By , at
Thu Jan 24, 12:48:00 AM:
And we still send our money to OPEC becuase the enviromental green weenies worry about what will happen to the wildlife when we should drill in the ANWR and tell the eco-weenies to GO TAKE A HIKE
