Economic Rambling

Posted on May 21, 2004 in Social Justice

It’s politics Friday….sigh

Despite the notoriety of Japanese investors, the British have the largest U.S. direct investment holding—with the Dutch not far behind—as has been the case since colonial times. In 1990 the United Kingdom held about 27 percent of foreign direct investment in the United States, significantly greater than Japan’s 21 percent. The European Economic Community (EC) collectively holds about 57 percent. Moreover, according to research by Eric Rosengren, between 1978 and 1987, Japanese investors acquired only 94 U.S. companies, putting them fifth behind the British (640), Canadians (435), Germans (150), and French (113).

  –Mark Ott

The ones we love to hate — the French and the Japanese — turn out to be the most loyal foreign investors in U.S. markets since the great Bush decline. Dropping their dollars and running like crazy are our allies, the British.

But then, I come back to the question of expatriates and citizens of other countries I asked last week: What can you do about your fellow citizens who profit from American militarism? Britain, the Netherlands, and Canada have some of the loudest critics about American policy and the largest stakes in the American economy. What are you doing about that?

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Four trillion dollars in debt and counting. Can we let the red states pay for all of it?

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• Foreign Investment Statistics from the BEA