This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008.

I'm Caleb Brown.

If we oppose our own government owning corporate assets in this country, why would we allow other governments to do so in the form of sovereign wealth funds?

Dan Eekinson, Associate Director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, says sovereign wealth funds are a different animal.

The United States should welcome investment.

First of all, sovereign wealth fund investment is nothing new.

It's just that in recent years the number of funds has

increased considerably and the amount of wealth under sovereign wealth fund

control has increased today. It's about two and a half to three trillion dollars worth of

assets. Some people in the United States and the US policy community are

concerned that if we allow sovereign wealth on participation in our markets and we are unclear as to whether

they are pursuing economic objectives or foreign policy objectives, that could somehow undermine the workings of the market.

Players could lose faith in the market.

I think that that is a concern that goes addressed by our current laws.

We have the currently we have the revamped

Cipheus rules, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States,

which was revamped in response to the Dubai Port World's debacle a few

years ago.

We have a slew of banking laws in place to make sure that no entity takes substantial control over the banking sector.

So I think we have, the rules and regulations that we have in place are sufficient to deal with foreign investment, whether it's privately owned or

directed by foreign governments.

I know a lot of libertarians express concern at times about the prospect of allowing foreign governments

...