Sovereign Funds Invest in U.S. Firms

A provocative title on a Wall St. Journal article -- The Deal Story of 2008:Will the U.S. Get LBOed? -- expresses the growing unease over foreign investment in U.S. companies.  Twenty years ago we feared the Japanese -- they were going to take over Wall St. and Rockefeller Center too.  Now the sovereign funds of China, the Gulf States, Singapore and Russia, are taking stakes in big-name U.S. companies, including Nasdaq, Blackstone Group and Bear Stearns.  With $2-3 trillion to invest, we can expect more.  In 2007 foreign buyers accounted for 20% of M&A in U.S.   Is the U.S. becoming a "share-cropper economy" as one expert put it?