Search This Blog

De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Monday, July 24, 2017

Economic Sanctions and Private Property Rights

By José Azel

Fifty-six years ago, President John F. Kennedy sent a reasonable message to the international community that governments choosing to expropriate the properties of U. S. citizens need to compensate them for their losses. Governments that choose to simply steal the properties of U. S. citizens should expect some form of retaliation from the U.S. government.  That message remains valid today as an expression of a government’s duty to protect the private property rights of its citizenry in foreign countries where the rule of law does not prevail.............Read More

My Take - These are large corporations who've had their property stolen, and they need to accept the responsibility of investing in unstable regions. They had to know the risks and they had to know the rule of law is not just fluid outside the U.S., it's often times non-existent.  These are smart people - they had to know that.  

This idea the people of the United States need to do something about it is a mistaken concept.  That's what got American into WWI when Woodrow Wilson pushed the idea the sinking of the Lusitania - a British ship that we now know was carrying contraband - was an attack on America because Americans were on board and some died. 

That was a novel concept at that time and the media played it up generating mass emotion which stopped all rational thought.  That's the foundation for Kennedy's actions and as far as I'm concerned, not one American life is worth billions in stolen foreign investments. 

This article deals with both sides of this argument and worth your time.

No comments:

Post a Comment