At Seeking Alpha, Joseph L. Shaefer writes:

We love to worry, don’t we? In the 1970s, it was the fear that Russia (well, back then, the USSR) was going to bury us as we decayed morally and depended dearly upon easily-interrupted foreign oil -- of which the Russians had supposedly unlimited quantities.

In the 1980s it was Japan, Inc. Japan was buying America. The Chicken Littles in the US ran around squawking that the sky was falling because Japan’s inherently organized society, its keiretsu, its cooperation between government, industry, and banks, and its automaton workforce were so much better than the US. Why, it was an unstoppable juggernaut. (Living in Hawaii at the time, I remember rubbing my hands in glee that Japanese investors were stupid enough to buy a hotel they had to get $600 per room per night for -- in 1980s dollars -- and have 88% occupancy just to break even. I predicted back then they’d sell it back to Americans at 50 cents on the dollar. I was wrong -- they sold it back to Americans at 28 cents on the dollar...)

With the silly certainty of hindsight, many scoff at both notions as if we’ve learned so much since then. No, we haven’t. The same people scoffing now were buying up copies of Japan, Inc.-titled books just a few years ago. And the new bogeyman is China. If you believe the press, China, with over a trillion US dollars in their coffers, is going to buy up all our oil companies (indeed, has already bought many Canadian ones), will be a peer military rival, will be the economic leader of the 21st century, and will eclipse America as a world leader.

Hold the phone.

To read more:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/85173-on-china-and-what-the-world-wont-see-during-the-olympics?source=d_email#comment_form