Since the American dollar is so devalued the world over, there’s a United States fire sale going on, and the world at large is buying up our most cherished American icons.   Belgium’s InBev — bottlers of Beck’s, Bass and Stella Artois — offered $46 billion to purchase major United States bottler Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser, Michelob, Rolling Rock, Busch, Bacardi) and its American eagle branded business. 


The most perilous threat to the facade of our natural, American, landscape isn’t just in the loss of local ownership of successful business brands, but also in the purchasing of our national monuments — in the guise of our iconic office buildings — by vested foreign interests. 

Who can forget William F. Buckley Jr.’s 1989 article with the xenophobic headline — “The Japs Capture Rockefeller Center” — detailing the purchase of the famous New York City series of landmark buildings for $846 million. 

Would the French sell the Eiffel Tower for any amount of money?  What’s the going rate for the Taj Mahal?  Does invasive, Americanized, Capitalism overrule any sense of community values and localized morality?

Five days ago, New York’s General Motors building — erected in 1968 — was sold for a record $2.8 billion to an investment company backed by money from Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar.

New York City’s Chrysler building — built in 1930 — is now 75% owned by an Arab investment conglomerate.  The price for that slice of our American pie was $800 million on June 11, 2008. 

New York City’s infamous Flatiron building — built in 1902 — fell into Italian hands a week ago when the Euro was valued at 1.56 dollars.  A year ago the Euro had a 1.33 exchange rate.  

Should we be taking an active, national, interest in keeping our American brands and landmark icons under local control and governance?  Or is foreign investment in — and ownership of — our national architecture and branding to be expected and accepted in a world economy?

11 Comments

  1. I imagine that the Eiffel Tower wouldn’t sell even if a trillion dollars were offered – that’s just how much they love it. I guess in America, it really is about “the bottom line.” How sad.

  2. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    It is sad, Gordon. These buildings really are our national Capitalist Monuments — and to sell them off to the highest bidder for foreign profit is just disgusting and I don’t care about private ownership of land values and sky rights. These buildings are part of our international identity. These landmarks are our icons — and they should remain in the full control of American interests even if the federal government needs to step in and buy them from the profiteers.

  3. ANNE – I live and teach on the upper West Coast of the United States. My interests are Philosophy, English, and Social Communication.
    ANNE says:

    I remember the sale of Rockefeller Center. Everybody was so shocked. It was like we couldn’t believe something that belong to us was sold out from under us like that.

  4. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Anne —
    We already have national parks and monuments — why not extend that protection to commercial buildings instead of just landmark houses? Our best architecture is used every day for business. That doesn’t mean we want the nation to lose ownership, though.

  5. Hi David,
    even if the ownership of these buildings have shifted to businesses from all over the world, their cost includes the markup that their iconic status confers on them! so it’s not likely that any of the new owners are likely to be unaware of their cultural significance. now if any of them fail to maintain the building properly, or worse decide to demolish one of these and replace it with a cookie-cutter high-rise, that would be cause for concern!

  6. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Excellent point, Dananjay —
    I understand the buildings won’t move — so the icon remains the same and unchanged — but the money going to the owners isn’t being directly reinvested and taxed down the line in the same community in which the icon resides. I realize that is the “on purpose” of it all — especially when foreign conglomerates place their money into American-based companies to give the illusion of local ownership when the real calls are being made in the Middle East.
    Dreamworks reported a separating from their current studio and they’re going independent again in their movie making with the help of a $1.2 billion investment from the richest man in India — so I suppose there’s now a ripe, international, market for American icons of flesh and in-the-blood instead of just limestone and steel.

  7. Kathakali Chatterjee – Hyderabad, India – Professionally, I have an interesting concoction of experience -- from entertainment industry to retailing to executive education -- the journey is still on. When I don't work, I love to travel, read, listen to music and watch movies.
    Kathakali Chatterjee says:

    Hi david,
    I still remember the way India was skeptical about foreign investments, but can it be stopped? Or, should it be?
    http://www.bharti.com/132.0.html?&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=218&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=131&cHash=2c3824ace2
    http://www.food-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=05430D86-B0FC-4EC2-89EA-91679B370992
    http://www.financialexpress.com/news/McDonalds-to-invest-Rs-400-cr-in-India/321481/

  8. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Those are excellent links, Katha.
    My feeling is foreign investment is the way of the world — but that it should in some way to be limited architecturally to creating your own vision. You should not be allowed to purchase established architectural icons — and if there’s a dispute as to what building is iconic or not, let the courts settle it. Somehow the entire Rockefeller Center experience — its meaning and its roots — were forever decayed by the Japanese purchase and never regained its former American iconization or luster.

  9. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    UPDATE:
    After Anheuser-Busch failed to respond to the InBev buyout, InBev is now looking to go mean and oust the Bud board…
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=auIl2ggW71_8&refer=us

  10. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    UPDATE:
    Finally… we get some human outrage over the Bud takeover:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/us/16beer.html

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