From Karl Marx's copybook

摘要

Patriotism, said Samuel Johnson, is the last refuge of a scoundrel. That may be unfair to the proper sort of patriot, but it would be an entirely valid comment about politicians today who make a fuss about foreign takeovers in their coun- tries, in the name of "national interests". The truth is that they are not defending their nations' interests at all. They are defending their own interests and (often) those of their cronies. Such selfish populism has become increasingly popular. Recent weeks have seen American politicians attacking the purchase of a port management firm by DP World from the United Arab Emirates (see page 70) and proposing new barri- ers for state-owned buyers to jump; the French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, hastily arranging a merger between a state-owned gas firm, Gaz de France, and another big utility, Suez, in order to see off an Italian bid for Suez (see pages 39 and 69), and proposing other anti-takeover measures; the Spanish government trying to block a German firm's bid for Endesa, a Spanish utility; the Polish government hindering an Italian takeover of a German bank because it involves Polish subsidiaries; South Korean politicians yelling foul at an American-led attempt to buy KT & G, formerly the state-owned tobacco and ginseng monopoly (see page 73); and the French and Luxembourg governments both trying to discourage a takeover by the world's biggest steel firm, Mittal, for the Franco-Belgian-Luxembourgeois Arcelor.