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Originally Posted by Professor S
There is a minor movement for the Government to issue Port Bonds to allow US citizens to invest in our ports and buy the rights. That might be a decision that could breach the argument of Free Trade vs. Government Control.
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Could you elaborate on this? I'm not sure I quite took your meaning.
Anyway, I saw your PM some time after I made my post, so I'll say a word here about economics. Basically, I don't see this as a trade issue. Maybe it is in the sense that Dubai Ports World runs the port more cheaply than the old British company did, but generally I don't think it had much to do with globalization. I think this issue is more related to the privatization movement. This is the same trend that deregulated airlines under the theory that non-regulated competition would lower prices (they probably did). It also led to the deregulation of communications which is why I find it interesting that Comcast has now basically gained a monopoly on cable in the eastern coast. It used to be that your local TV cable company had its price and services set by the government in order to avoid gouging, but now they have been released under the theory that any other company (like mayb AT&T or Microsoft or somebody) would be free to come in and try to offer their services more cheaply than Comcast. The problem is Comcast owns the actual cable lines running into your home, and they're not going to let someone else just come in and start offering content on their own property.
I'm not sure where you think Verizon has a monopoly, though. There are plenty of cell phone carriers out there. Unless you're talking about DSL in which case Comcast cable is arguably a direct competitor.
Privatization is a political as well as an economic matter, and I think you're pretty familiar with the issue already since that's basically what the health care debate is all about. It's just that in this case, instead of a for profit company selling you physician services, a for profit company is lifting crates at the harbors. The question, as always, is whether that is a service that's too valuable to be entrusted to a private corporation.