Government Ownership

There is one problem with the Dubai Port World deal that I didn't want to get into.

DPWorld is owned by a government. There is a strong argument against allowing a foreign government to own businesses in the US (especially those related to infrastructure).

The problem with goverments is that governments tend to be rife with political motive and might use a business to try and force political decisions.

I didn't jump into this issue as most of the reports I've seen have focused on the UEA and not the government v. private investment argument.

There could be a good argument for blocking the deal based on the UAE's ownership of Dubai Ports World. Such a decision, however, should be based on a general policy against government ownership and not on the ethnic background of the country in question.

All of the blogs and news reports I've read focus primarily on the country of origin and not on the government v. private ownership issue.