Guest Opinion: Restrict foreign ownership of U.S. companies

To ensure America's long-term prosperity and national security, strict limits on foreign government investments in U.S. companies and other hard assets are needed - and they are needed fast.

As demonstrated most recently by the purchase of 5 percent of Citigroup stock by Persian Gulf sheikhdom Abu Dhabi, the flood of official foreign money already eyeing America's economic jewels will only continue ballooning.

Not only do these governments' profits keep soaring from increasingly one-way trade with the United States and from robust global oil exports, but sagging yields on their traditional fixed-income U.S. investments plus the weakening dollar have spurred a search for higher returns - generally through official investment agencies called Sovereign Wealth Funds.

Although massive foreign government purchases of U.S. Treasury bills have been propping up American living standards, they are decidedly mixed blessings. After all, they stem from the massive debts America has piled up thanks to astronomical trade and broader international financial deficits. And they have encouraged Americans to continue living beyond their means by providing artificially cheap credit.

Meanwhile, the prominence in this picture of China, Russia and the Persian Gulf oil exporters - hardly U.S. allies or even reliable neutrals - greatly magnifies the risks of such dependence.

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