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Opinion: Foreign dollars, American voters

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I haven’t given much credence to claims by President Obama and left-of-center bloggers that the Chamber of Commerce is providing a front for foreign companies to meddle in U.S. elections. I share the sentiments that The Times’ editorial board voiced last month, to wit, the real problem is groups like the chamber giving domestic companies cover to try to sway voters anonymously.

Monday, though, I read a recent post by economist Simon Johnson that offers a big-picture view of how the influx of foreign investment dollars leads inexorably toward foreign interests influencing the political efforts of U.S. corporations. Here’s a sample:

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Irrespective of how you feel about foreign capital inflows in economic terms, you have to face the political reality. As foreigners accumulate claims on the United States, they will increasingly diversify into corporate assets (in fact, this is the advice they get from their Wall Street advisors). Some of these corporate assets explicitly come with voting rights – but those are supposed to be voting rights over the corporation (or investment fund), not voting rights in political elections.

We have effectively enfranchised foreigners in U.S. elections. This is clearly and absolutely not what the drafters of the Constitutions had in mind.

His solution: more rigorous disclosure requirements. That’s something the left and the right should support, given that it wouldn’t squelch political speech so much as make the speaker’s motivations more obvious.

-- Jon Healey

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