 Remember
last year when our politicians were furious over the Dubai
ports deal? How dare we sell out our security to some
foreign country! Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news
(yet again) but the Real Story is that we're still selling
this country out to foreign interests, it's just not making
headlines because there are no elections to be won this time
around.
I'd like to introduce you to something called "Sovereign
Wealth Funds." They're basically investment vehicles through
which governments can invest in foreign countries, like, oh
say, the United States, for example, and experts believe
these funds currently control $2.5 TRILLION in worldwide
investments. That may grow to an unfathomable $17.5 TRILLION
in just the next ten years.
So why am I telling you this? Well, everyone knows that
countries like China own a lot of our debt, but what if
those countries put their money into buying tangible things;
things like real estate or American companies instead? It's
already happening: Dubai's government, yea, the same Dubai
that wanted our ports -- just bid almost a billion dollars
to buy Barney's department store and China recently spent $3
billion for a stake in Blackstone --a company whose holdings
include firms that create military software.
But aside from the obvious conflict of interest issue,
there's another big problem: with money, comes power and
influence. As the SEC Chairman acknowledged recently as he
tried to warn Senators about the risks of these funds, the
motives behind these investments may, quote "go beyond
profit and loss." People love to talk about Halliburton's
and Cheney...but what if you replaced Cheney with China?
What if Venezuela owned and controlled our gas stations --
oops, that's called CITGO.
It's troubling to think that large, virtually anonymous
foreign countries are buying up our land and assets, but
it's far more troubling to think about what those countries
could do with those assets the next time we face a crisis.
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