Japanese Investment
Author Catherine Collins (Speaking Out, May 7) is unquestionably an expert on Japanese investment in the U.S. Nonetheless, it’s my uncomfortable feeling that her thesis regarding the potential danger in Japanese ownership of U.S. real estate has the horse behind the cart.
The U.S. doesn’t “monitor foreign investments in some manner” nor stringently control same, because prior to the time of runaway trade deficits, we were economically strong enough not to worry. Unlike Mexico, which prohibits its foreign ownership of coastal property--one of its few assets--we had great production and technology strengths.
In a global economy, it is folly to rely on the banning of imports and the clutching to our bosoms of urban real estate as a means of saving ourselves, while ever-increasing numbers of Americans go to work selling hamburgers to each other.
MARY LOU WHITMORE
Brentwood
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