It's Money That Matters, As Always

I just wanted to throw out this crazy notion given the disconsolate news of the world wide markets in response to our little untidiness over the subprime mortgage meltdown and the effects rippling through our financial institutions.

Yesterday in the New York Times, this story tried to create the impression that, somehow, this could be good news because foreign investors would establish more of a presence in this country than the substantial one they have already, bailing us out somehow in light of our own ineptitude and malfeasance.

And this particular bit of condescension caught my eye...

Some labor unions see the acceleration of foreign takeovers as the latest indignity wrought by globalization.

“It’s the culmination of a series of fool’s errands,” said Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers. “We’ve hollowed out our industrial base and run up this massive trade deficit, and now the countries that have built the deficits are coming back to buy up our assets. It’s like spitting in your face.”

Other labor groups take a more pragmatic view.

Oh, you poor, sad labor unions. You continue to protest the havoc wrought by the pillaging of our way of life? How "un-pragmatic" of you (as Atrios so correctly noted recently, the Times is more interested in preserving the status quo than in honoring anything we would associate with liberal or progressive values).

Well, suppose all of this global expansion into our economy turns out to be a bad thing? What if it leads to a scenario such as this one instead?