happy 4th of july weekend to the folks in america!

many happy returns of the day, or words to that effect

for a sobering thought, here's clyde prestowitz's book, a review in the nytimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/03/books/review/03BLODGET.html?

alarmist, isn't it? this is the democratic perspective, atlanticist indeed. if the jobs were going to europe or if it was germans investing in the us rather than japanese or chinese, i think there would be much less worry.

even a fairly sensible person like paul krugman was getting excited about the chinese bid for unocal. i say, sell them whatever they'll pay good money to buy. the japanese ended up getting poor value for their investments in the us in the 1980s, and the chinese are likely to do the same.

incidentally, vsnl just completed its purchase of the tyco undersea cable.