Saturday, January 30, 2010

Are corporations, now allowed more influence on elections, owned by foreigners?

It's not at all clear how much ownership foreigners actually have over US corporations. So many stocks change hands so quickly, the true picture of who owns what shares of what companies is only current as of 2005.  Who has gained ownership of US corporations since then? The picture is so very complex, we can't say with any certainty, meaning that if corporations run with the US Supreme Court decision (PDF) that says they can give unlimited amounts to candidates for public office, then that money could be coming from Russia, Venezuela, China, etc.

We should be aware, however, that  election campaigns are awash in corporate campaign cash anyway. It probably is a good idea to limit corporate camapign cash, but it's unlikely that we can get a well-crafted, effective law to do that anytime soon.

And, yes, Politi-Fact  is generally a good fact-checking site, but they badly blew their assessment of the Citizen's United case here.

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