"Obama Administration Touts Foreign Investment!"

[KoKo]

Obama Administration Touts Foreign Investment

Peter S. Goodman


Both Obama and Goolsbee highlighted the benefits of foreign investment as a source of high-paying jobs, noting that overseas firms with operations in the United States now employ 5.7 million Americans. A recent report from the Commerce Department asserted that foreign companies investing in the United States tend to pay wages as much as 30 percent higher than average jobs, a claim that provokes debate among economists.

The new push from the White House to extract the benefits of trade is politically risky. It will almost certainly provoke the anger of labor unions, who tend to portray foreign investment as a threat, making American employment ever more susceptible to changes in the global economy. When foreign companies own American plants, domestic paychecks no longer hinge on decisions made only in Washington or Detroit or Los Angeles, but in boardrooms on the other side of oceans, in Frankfurt, London and Seoul.

Not lost on those tasked with securing Obama a second term: Union power and campaign money is more important than ever, particularly amid signs that the President is likely to have a difficult time raising the vast stores of Wall Street cash that helped him get to the White House in the first place.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/obama-foreign-investment_n_880937.html