"The first stage of fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power"
--Benito Mussolini

Last week Treasury Secretary Paulson had a meeting with representatives from Abu Dhabi and Singapore. The meeting involved setting up "rules" for future investments in America from their Sovereign Wealth Funds.

"SWF investment decisions should be based solely on commercial grounds, rather than to advance, directly or indirectly, the geopolitical goals of the controlling government," the agreement stated.

No one noted the obvious irony.

A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a state-owned fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, property or other financial instruments.

The first ironic twist of this agreement is the fact that America has spent more than half a century pushing third world nations to open their markets to unrestricted foreign investment. Refusal to comply with America's wishes all too often meant a CIA-sponsored coup.
Now we are trying to put restrictions on how former third-world nation can invest in America.

The second, and more important, ironic twist is the obvious weakness this displays. If America had a strong economy would we really care what the motivations of the SWF's were? If we weren't desperate for the money, would there even be opportunities for the SWF's to buy significant amounts of American assets?