Britain, Greece or Spain, rich foreigners could buy whatever they pleased. In no uncertain terms, Washington made it clear to German, Japanese, and (later) Chinese capitalists: in our country, the United States of America, you can buy real estate. You can buy our government debt. You can buy small, insignificant companies, bankrupted factories in our rust belts and, of course, Wall Street’s labyrinthine derivatives. But keep your grubby hands off our Boeing, our General Electric, our Big Tech, our Big Pharma and, of course, our banks.
