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I missed the segment was the balance of trade mentioned? what are "foreigners" supposed to do with all the dollarS we are pumping into their economies? if we keep buying oil and plastic from foreigner economies and we don't make anything of value, all they have left to buy is US debt (ha) or real estate. so if u don't like this BUY AMERICAN, Save and invest.

would have been nice to see the full picture and not the 'muslims are investing in america... everyone run' aspect. for example what is the size of US investment in places like Paris, London, or even in UAE. also, how dos the US benefit from Japanese and Chinese purchase of government securities.

21/Alex

Well put.

For some reason US-based callers have an insecurity complex big time, at least callers to this show. Don't hate yourselves!

When American companies go into another land -- even today -- and start a company or buy a property -- it is most often perceived by locals as a BLESSING FROM THEIR GOD. For good reason, usually, in the context of living and working standards, better pay, and interaction with, as a stereotype, nice and fair people second to none.

True.

What was it, Port America, in DC that got shot down for the same thing?

Wow, guys attended Princeton or Wharton are using Middle Eastern money to invest in the US and especially in New York. Isn't this EXACTLY the kind of thing we are looking for?

This whole story is ridiculous.

Shees people, it’s called capitalism! Private property can change hands to whomever’s willing to pay for it. If America wants so-called American icons to stay under American ownership, then The United States, New York State, or New York City government should purchase the building at the going rates. This is obviously nothing but stoking the fires of hatred of Islamic nations. If you don’t like the idea of this purchase, let the United States nationalize everything and become a Fascist state.

it is normal for hu,ans to be bigits!

--words to live by.

15/memorexe

no they only do that w $300 million airplanes.

Normal yes, it is normal for hu,ans to be bigits! Whenever a extrajero, un etrangeur, a foreignor who is NOT WITE buys something.

How come no one cared about BROWN [mexican/ecuatireans] died in small construction accidents until a big crane hurts wite folk?

If they buy it, can they take it home too?
That would be funny.

Oh my gosh -- the Queen of England was behind 9/11?

I did not KNOW that.

don't ever accuse BL of anything bad!...he read the paper

We have to make an important distinction between foreign PRIVATE companies and foreign sovereign wealth funds. We should welcome the former and ban the latter. Sovereign wealth funds are the financial tools of statist or socialist governments. These are countries where in some cases women can't even drive, where no elections are held, where you can't even chew gum (in the case of Singapore), where bloggers are routinely arrested, where human rights are violated daily. We would not want our own government to nationalize some assets, and we should not accept foreign governments buying US assets.

Our xenophobia always lurks near the surface. Similar sentiments were expressed in the late 1980's and early 1990's when Japanese investors - flush w/cash after a decade long boom - were buying up iconic buildings (including Rockefeller Center), golf courses and resorts across the country. The worries subsided five years later when Japan's real estate bubble burst and they were having to unload the investments.

People forget that in the early 90"s people were saying the same thing about japan in the same xenophobic way. let them buy the buildings they can't take them back to there country. PS: many Japanies investors took a bath and sold many buildings at a discount years latter.

why is everyone so paranoid, just because you lose la perte your yjob in la recession doesn't mean that there are terrorists in the apartments

All the hoopla seems more related to it being a Muslim country, it seems more "Muslim-Phobia".

See, she sells out out of fear. LOL

Possibly not Steve. You wouldn't be allowed to practice your own religion IF you are religious (I'm not but I don't want to deny anyone who is the right to practice religious beliefs!)
We are an open market country guys, we sell out to anyone who has the money!! Wake up America, you're not the only country that discriminates just the only one who sells out.

Are we allowed to buy building in the oil rich countries?

Who cares who owns/invests in NYC "icons"?

Didn't the Queen of England own the GM building for a while? Not only do foreigners buy U.S. properties....They also eventually sell them - often back to Americans.

This is not a story at all!

If other countries started objecting to Americans buying their landmarks, WNYC and others would probably call it "anti-American". So why the xenophobia now? We saw it with Dubai Ports World. Now we see it again.

What New Yorker nitwit (maybe Mayor Bloomberg?) will assert that there is a "national security" issue?

If Abu Dhabi buys the Chrysler Building, it just shows how the US is going down, or at least the rest are rising up as Zakaria says. We hemorrhage massive dollars in exchange for oil and the oil countries stock away the money and buy our buildings, and port security, etc.

We are fat, dumb and happy (even those who are lean, smart and miserable) and they are hungry.

Aren't the British the biggest single foreign base of owners of US-based equity? Of course, we would never pick a fight with them...

I figure for every dollar of FDI in the US, it's another dollar into an insurance policy against that country undermining this one because it will hurt their financial interests (not to mention their second homes).

Of course, I made that assumption about Lebanon too, same logic, and look what happened.