China in talk to buy Morgan Stanley http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ao0BD9Zuhy3E&refer=home Great. Communist buys icon of capitalism with our own money.
Hey, we buy most of our cheap Chinese crap at Walmart, of course they have our wallet in their hands.
Are you feeling sorry for MS? They brought it to themselves. Let's see if they can merge with WB. US of all sorta of entities are playing loose and fast with their balance sheet except guys like Microsft, Google and Intel. You know, the real companies. The combination of self inflicted damage and the rise of BRIC are going to make these sort of scenario happens more often. Samsung -> SNDK. MS -> Citic. So, do we have the will power to clean up our own balance sheets? Do we have the encourage to say no to bailout? No to handout to GM/F/Chrys?
If you think the Chinese are true communists (as opposed to in name only), then you've got more than a bit to learn about the country which will be the largest economy in the world within 15 years. Having worked with the Chinese directly for 10+ years, I know from experience that they are more purely capitalist than the U.S. is these days. They know where their bread is buttered (or rather where their rice is fried). With their political-economic shackles released, their entrepreneurial Confucian heritage reigns now. This stretches from the street vendors pushing their carts to the new business executives being driven in Bentleys. China reminds me of the U.S. a century ago.
So, how far we need to sink before we have the will power? Until US become insolvent? If that's the case, can you claim China, Russia or anyone else? It is us that brought USA down.
I was tongue-in-cheek. I go to China every year and know it's the puriest capitalist country in the world, unfettered by regulations or laws.
I appreciate your separation of US capitalism past vs. present. For now. The debt-for-equity swaps occuring as we speak lead me to believe we are in trouble and will be seeing the UN overseeing our finances in the future. I miss the industrial age in all ways but in the speed of the information age... and PCs.