Reply #19: Some would like to build a wall around U.S. economy

[54anickel]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2006-03-14-protection-cover-usat_x.htm

snip the the TICS related part>

U.S. dependent on foreign investment

As Congress rethinks foreign investment, Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, thinks the new focus on security ignores the U.S. economy's dependence upon foreign investment. The USA requires about $3 billion in foreign capital every working day to finance the huge gap between its consumption of foreign goods and its exports. The country just doesn't have the luxury of walling itself off, Prestowitz says: "We're shooting ourselves in the foot here. People don't realize this, but our economy is on life support from foreign lenders and investors."

Questions over foreign investment aren't going away. Next month, Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to meet with President Bush at the White House even as the Treasury Department nears a decision on formally stating that China manipulates its currency for trade advantage.

Likewise, thanks to high oil prices, the Dubai Ports deal won't be the last Arab investment here. Since 1998, members of the OPEC oil cartel have earned $1.3 trillion in petrodollars, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Much of it is staying home, helping fuel enormous increases in regional stock markets. But tens of billions of petrodollars have surged into U.S. corporate bonds, equities and direct investment. And more are probably coming.

"Foreigners have a whole pile of dollars," says Reinsch. "I don't know what we expect them to do with them."