The new US Government Shakedown...

It was during the Clinton administration that the practice of shaking down corporate entities under the Republican controlled house became a fine art. By the early 2000's the money was pouring in. The US Government has always been good at raking in the cash from constituents whenever possible. I remember the tobacco company's CEO's sitting in front of congress being questioned about a legal product that was getting farm subsidies as if they had done something wrong. Besides all the moral and legal issues the BIG elephant was the amount of money members of congress were able to rake out of those cash rich companies.

Now they have got a big new hot potato that will bring in more cash, more cash. In case you don't know, ex members of congress and their staffers and all the other inbreeds in Washington often go to work for lobbying firms. You know what they do. Get paid BIG BUCKS to open doors for those with big bucks. Check this out:

Non-US companies wanting to acquire sensitive US assets are increasingly seeking the blessing of lawmakers on Capitol Hill as they move forward with their transactions.

The trend underscores how dramatically the environment for deals has changed since the controversy over Dubai Ports World.

Executives, lobbyist and attorneys involved in recent high-profile deals, including Alcatel's merger with Lucent and Toshiba’s takeover of Westinghouse, are reaching out to lawmakers to educate them about their transactions and ways to mitigate any potential national security-related concerns.

In one case, a New York-based fuel cell producer, Plug Power, approached senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton and other politicians to help pave the way for a $240m (£135m) investment into Plug Power by a Russian company headed by billionaire Vladimir Potanin. The trend has emerged as legislators debate plans to revamp the way the US reviews foreign deals on national security grounds.

The Dubai Ports Deal sure did wake up congress. Hey, man, this is a gold mine. If every major international business deal has to be cleared by congress just think of how much money is going to flow through Washington. Just think about it. Man it is going to be huge!

Well uh, I remember when US companies wanted to invest in the "old" Soviet Union. I remember reading about companies not being able to determine who had real athority to approve an investment. There were so many power centers in Moscow it was a joke. Companies had to jump so many hurdles (and I am sure grease so many palms) they eventually made one decision, give up. Investment in the old Soviet Union was non-existant.

Now Washington is treading on thin ice. It is a dangerious prescident to have the Dubai Ports Deal spill over to the point where companies have to lobby various power centers in Washington to get a deal approved. They will just stay away. With the US trade deficit approacing $100 Billion per year and the US government annual deficit approaching $800 Billion per year and all this debt increasingly being financed by forigen governments what exactly are they supposed to do with all the quickly decreasing value of dollars? We need those dollars flowing back to the US and we don’t need our government greasing their palms over every deal.

When Washington starts looking like the Soviet Union in 1980 we will have a problem... We have a problem.

Source: Acquisitive companies turn to US Congress>By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington>Published: April 23 2006 22:02 Last updated: April 23 2006 22:02
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/85aca590-d306-11da-828e-0000779e2340,s01=1.html