Undercurrents

Sorry folks for the off-topic post today. Instead, we'll be talking world politics. Not the goofy camera-ready crap on Capitol Hill, but the real deal.

I came across this article (reg req) in the New York Times recently and it sent shivers up my spine. For those of you too lazy to follow the link, it is a lengthy article about Russia's forced nationalization of the world's largest nickel producer. This is scary when you put it context. Putin's goverment pushed Yukos Oil out of business a few years ago and has since forced the sale of any number of "strategic assets" to the goverment and its friends. Moreover, these assets are on a foreign buying spree.

I am a capitalist through and through (Ayn Rand, anyone?), but events like these unsettle me on an even deeper level. This growing list of foreign-owned strategic assets and commodity companies is a fatal cancer for America's economy. It is also, and perhaps more worryingly, the weakening of the foundation of our political power on the world stage. I happen to think President Bush has done some irreparable damage to our economy and reputation, but I also think this pales in comparison to the threat that we are up against with the balance of "commodity power" lurching as it is, away from American shores.

Gas and oil are the commodities everyone worries about, but there is also outsourced food production as more of our land is lost to urban sprawl, raw metals and materials, even technical know-how. The brouhaha over the Dubai Ports World contract is part of this. In its own way, the use of private military companies (mercenaries) by the U.S. military is part of this.

How are we to remain independent if we do not control our essential commodities?

The scariest part of all is that there is absolutely nothing that you and I can do about it. Shopping at the "right" store and buying the "right" goods can't fix it. Electing the "right" politician(s) can't fix it. Invading the "right" country can't fix it.