High Fear Globalization: Miami & the Dubai Ports World Deal

March 06, 2006
High Fear Globalization: Miami & the Dubai Ports World Deal
Steve Clemons
...Many Americans -- Republicans, Democrats, and Independents -- don't trust the Dubai Ports Worldwide deal because fundamentally they don't trust the UAE during this time of serious tension with the Middle East.

But the deeper issue is that we have slipped from a "High Trust" type of globalization to "High Fear Globalization." People, products, money, and ideas are just not going to move through the world in the same contours they once did -- and this port ownership debate is another part of this trend.

Americans need to realize that we have created a highly fragile system for ourselves in which concern about who owns our ports ought to be matched by who owns our debt and the future value of the dollar. While many Americans worried about the sale of Unocal to a Chinese state-owned firm, the bigger issue in my mind is that many of the crown jewels of the semiconductor design and production business are slipping to China.....