An hour later you are hungry

The old joke about Chinese Food is that you eat, and an hour later you are hungry. The same may be true for China. Over the last few months the Chinese have been quietly eating up, buying, American companies. China is the world's largest holder of US Dollars.

As the dollar has been devalued, China faced a big decision. Should they sell dollars or use dollars to buy America. Selling dollars would have led to futher decline in the global value of the dollar and made their remaining dollars worth less. Instead they have decided to spend dollars to buy US companies or buy stock in US Companies. China was a big investor in the newly formed VISA Corporation.

Globalization takes many strange turns and increasingly the things we believe to be "American" are becoming multinational. Likewise, things we always thought of as foreign are being produce in America. The best example of this are the BMWs produced in South Carolina...not in Germany. That Visa card in your wallet is owned by the folks in Beijing.

It's time to begin thinking less about what defines America in terms of physical things and more about what America really is all about. From our beginning America was about ideas. We are an extension of a philosophy that began in Europe and took root in North America. These basic ideas about freedom and government are the foundation of America.

Today, people are protesting the Chinese Olympic torch relay in San Francisco. People, many who were not born here, say that China is wrong in the handling of Tibet. Protest is an American idea. It would seem that China has bitten off more then it can chew and in the process of buying America it is helping to spread America, the idea, globally.