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  • From: Liz <liz@allslash.org>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Efficiency
  • Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:12:52 -0500



Which way now when the world has shifted?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/23/creditcrunch1
The truth, however, is that in 2007 the financial world was turned upside
down: the credit crunch has toppled a golden decade of extraordinary
prosperity in the UK and accelerated a shift in the global balance of
economic power. One consequence is that banks in the City and Wall Street,
the engine rooms of capitalism, have been so desperate for cash that they
have sold large chunks of their equity to China or Middle Eastern states.

I don't know how this is going in the UK, but in the US, or at least the good-sized part of the Mid-Atlantic that I'm very familiar with, Asian, Hispanic and Middle Eastern business owners far outnumber homegrown Americans. I recently began working in the District of Columbia and southern Maryland, in addition to the rest of the state of Virginia, and I don't believe I have been to a single store that was not minority-owned, except for a couple of large chains. The same is true all the way to Roanoke and south-central Virginia. Only west of there is it uncommon to find stores owned by Koreans (the largest Asian group), Hispanics or Middle Easterners. I don't know whether any of these people are getting help from outside the country to buy these stores, but the ownership is changing whatever the source of funds to buy them. Because the owners must at least have a green card before they can participate in the food stamp program, there is the expectation that they will eventually become citizens. In the meantime, at least, there are substantial numbers of small businesses in the hands of non-citizens.

Liz in SW VA
http://life-as-a-spectator-sport.com




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