| > We're saying the same thing That's because you still haven't answered the original question: >>> Is a trade deficit important to not have? E.g., consider your examples: >sheiks owning the sports teams and chineese businessman owning all the prime housing Given that I'm not the type of person who buys sports teams and prime housing (of the sort purchased by Chinese businessmen), why should I care about that style of FDI? I mean, I guess it must suck for the American ultra-rich that they now have to compete with the Chinese ultra-rich for access to ultra-veblen goods like owning sports teams, but... why the hell should the rest of us care which mega-rich person owns the local sports team!? What possible material impact could that ever have on us? The only type of FDI that effects my life is FDI in productive assets, like factories, and those are strictly good for me (more and better-paying jobs). "So we lost the Toyota factory but on the plus side the sports team isn't owned by a Sheik" seems like a really dumb trade-off. What am I missing here...? |