Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Liz <liz@allslash.org>]

> 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