China, according to a recent news story, has invested something like $1.7 trillion dollars in U.S. bonds and that if China stopped buying our bonds we would face a really awesome financial disaster.
Meanwhile, a few miles off the coast of Florida, China is reported to be investing $2.5 billion in a massive tourist complex near Nassau, in The Bahamas.
China is demanding, according to the Nassau Guardian, that The Bahamas issue work permits for 8,150 Chinese workers, who would constitute about 71 percent of the work force needed to construct the Baha Mar facility.
This despite the fact that all the needed workers could easily be drawn from the Bahamas labor pool; the local government is, needless to say, dragging its feet.
What's scary is the precedent.
If you owe China, China may decide to play games with your own immigration policy. And we really owe China. In fact, if the $1.7 trillion and $2.5 billion figures are both correct, we owe 680 times as much as The Bahamas does.
And though the balance of power between America and China is quite different from that of The Bahamas and China, 680 times 8,150 is an awesome number – in excess of 5.5 million.
The thought process here is closer to fantasy, nightmarish fantasy, than to reality, but it is a reminder that the U.S. is no longer the economic powerhouse it was a few decades ago.
It is conceivable that some of our creditors might like to take out some of their chits in . . . visas.