The End of an Era

A little light blogging from London...

So today Dubai Ports World essentially scrapped its merger talks that would have led to the acquisition of several key US ports, citing concerns centered around rising resistance in the US Congress to foreign acquisition of key US infrastructure. Does this mean that this summer's scuttled CNOOC-Unocal deal marked the end of the second great era of globalization? Is the US finally drawing back into itself, in fear of foreign ownership. I myself am fairly critical of these WTO-friendly neo-trade barriers that are more straight up political than actual economic tariff barriers. They mark a dangerous precedent and seem to have little grounding in rational thought, as most of these mergers are *not* actual threats to US security (for instance, the port deal is more akin to the Japanese acquisition of Rockefeller Center than say.... a nuclear power plant). Generally, US military and police forces remain in charge of security and the only difference is profits flow abroad rather than remaining domestic. Of course, with the ports deal, profits are already flowing to Britain. It would just switch to the UAE. The only real concern is if DP World can be linked to terrorist money laundering in any way.

So I pose again whether scuttled deals like CNOOC-Unocal and DP world, coupled with the rise of national champions in Europe, mark a sea change in the tide of globalization. Whence now, o world? Will rising fuel costs--and thereby, rising transportation costs--further exacerbate this movement?