"THE CHINA SERVICE?"...

China, which has already quietly bought stock in some of our financial institutions (including Morgan Stanley and Citi Bank), is now purchasing stock in some of our key and most perennially popular corporations.

China already owns a big chunk of our national debt and has threatened that, if America doesn't "get control of her economy," we face paying China an even higher interest rate on the money we owe her. (Ironcially, some of the money we are currently borrowing from that country will go toward servicing that debt; and for that matter, a lot of it already has).

With the interwoven worries these facts generate, I can't help thinking about a "Back to the Future" column I wrote in the past, in which I listed a future event as:

"The Chinese government is calling in her debt and has initiated foreclosure on the U.S. White House and other U.S. owned buildings."

Were the items in my Back-to-the-Future column really tongue-in-cheek?

And what does China mean by "get control of our economy?" Is she suggesting the U.S. government RUN our economy? Have we already taken a step down that road?

This free-market R.A.T. (Rose About Town), who is gnashing her teeth again, has long since taken her tongue from out of her cheek, for fear of biting it off!