However, tough economic times are also just about the only time there is a real opportunity to reduce the number of government employees at all. When times are good and budgets fat, nobody says, “Hey, jobs are easy to come by; let’s fire the worst 10 percent of the public payroll and reduce both the size of government and the tax burden, right here and now!” Sometimes, you get a combination of factors that actually helps to make some reductions successful, as was the case for Gov. Blunt. He deserves great credit for that, even though it was nothing quite like the radical reduction in non-public-safety-related government employees that we need right now, in my opinion.

I don’t mean to single out Missouri state government employees, in contrast to local, state, or federal bureaucrats thoughout the county — which gets me to the point of this post. Today’s Wall Street Journal has a hysterical article about government workers in Belgium, and their abuse of sick leave. Read the whole thing.

It’s funny in many ways, but in a bigger way, it is just pathetic. This is what socialism (or quasi-socialism) does to people: It takes their initiative away, and any sense they might have of controlling their own destiny, all in the name of equality and fairness. So, you eventually get a nation of losers who can’t go to work because they are depressed that their girlfriend dumped them. No wonder InBev is actually run by Brazilians. …

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Shocking. You know who else stands to benefit? Me, probably you, and just about everyone else.

Who actually owns AB? The Busch family? Its employees? The city of St. Louis?

Let’s take a quick look at AB’s latest financial statements. The largest individual shareholder of Anheuser-Busch (owning about 5 percent of total shares) is Warren Buffet. Well, he’s from Nebraska, so obviously he’s an outsider. But what about institutional investors? Well, a British conglomerate owns about 6 percent. And Mr. August Busch? A whopping 0.2 percent (though I believe he has about 4 percent of the voting power)!

And you know who else owns AB? Me, along with several hundred thousand of my closest friends at Vanguard. And probably Barack Obama, Francis Slay, and Matt Blunt, too.

Saint Louis has no “right” to AB when only one percent of the entire company is owned by AB insiders. And more than that, how do Missouri governmental officials have a right to have any say in a shareholder decision whatsoever?

One comment in the Post-Dispatch article is particularly misguided:

[H]ow ridiculous to say that Barack Obama wants the brewery to remain American while Republicans want it to go. Hello!?! Republican (Ex Chief of Staff to Matt Blunt) Ed Martin is behind the “SaveAB.com” along with SEVERAL other Republican operatives.

I don’t see all of these Democrats in the city doing much to stop the deal.

As well they shouldn’t, because it’s none of their business. This is a decision for the 99 percent of the company owned by outside investors. That’s how a free-market economy works. As voting shareholders, we can each choose to vote however we please. But what we cannot do is ask our government to step in and force a decision on our behalf. There is nothing less American than that.

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Signals that public-private partnerships to manage Missouri roads give him "deep concerns," because of the potential for foreign ownership . . . Still, Jay Nixon leaves "everything on the table."

Having co-written an entire study of this subject, let me repeat that there is no "ownership" in a public-private partnership. The private partner leases an existing asset, or obtains the right to build and operate a future asset, but does not own it. The people of Missouri, through state government, would always own any infrastructure built or operated under PPPs.

As for the "foreign" part, I can’t fathom why this bothers so many people so much in these cases. It’s just a frickin’ road. (As an aside, I can understand why potential foreign ownership of Anheuser-Busch bothers people.) There are plenty of American campanies that can bid on these projects, and the leading international companies that do this type of transportation PPP are based in Australia and Spain. If we were to decide that we needed to really finish what we started in 1898 and return to war against Spain, like Rome v. Carthage, it’s not as if a Spanish company that built and operated a Missouri bridge could take the bridge and move it back to the Iberian Peninsula. This is foreign investment in America, that could potentially provide new transportation infrastructure only at a cost to people who choose to use the asset, and unlike the AB/InBev situation, no current jobs would be at stake. Why this upsets so many people is beyond me. …

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“Americans don’t want the Statue of Liberty bought by the Saudis or the Washington Monument purchased by the Chinese. Shareholders should resist choosing dollars over American jobs. Selling out to the Belgians is not worth it ? because this is about more than beer: it’s about our jobs and our nation.”

While I certainly appreciate the sentiment and nostalgia surrounding the Anheuser-Busch drama, I cannot agree with the author’s logic. The InBev bid is a perfect example of what capitalism is all about — the migration of capital to the places where it can be used most productively. It is this free flow of capital that has powered the U.S. economy since its inception.

For example, during the past decade Toyota has created 36,632 new American jobs. Is Toyota destroying U.S. culture? No. It has been fundamental in fueling innovation in the automobile industry and ensuring that those 30-some-odd thousand families have a home to live in and food on their plates, and are able to contribute to the growth of the U.S. economy. In fact, there are currently more than 5.1 million Americans (4.4 percent of the entire labor force) employed by non-U.S. companies. If we deny Anheuser-Busch shareholders the right to choose whether to accept InBev’s bid, what are we saying about the long-term prospects of millions of Americans’ jobs?

Moreover, if foreign investment is such an “affront to democracy,” then why is the Missouri legislature paying Bombardier Aerospace (a Canadian airplane manufacturer) millions (of taxpayer money, no less!) to build a factory in Kansas City? If we rely on nationalistic sentiment, shouldn’t we demand that those jobs remain in Toronto? Or shouldn’t we demand that Anheuser-Busch bring back the jobs of the nearly 24,000 people it employs outside of the Saint Louis area? If we were to follow this kind of protectionist sentiment to its logical extreme, we would simply revert back to an economy of sustenance farmers, completely dependent upon our local economies for our entire means of production.

How “American” is that?

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Although I can understand where they are coming from (securing local jobs, pandering to voters, etc.) this blatant act of government interference is unnecessary and quite ridiculous. This is a possible acquisition between two publicly traded companies, and for government officials to even suggest impeding the process is outlandish. Officials even acknowledge there is nothing they can lawfully do, yet they insist on causing a commotion in hopes that InBev will retract its offer and ride off into the figurative sunset. There is no doubt that Anheuser-Busch has played an influential and charitable role in the development of St. Louis, but after all, it is a private corporation and if it decides selling to InBev is in the best interest of shareholders, no government official should try to obstruct the process. It is not the responsibility of government officials to determine what is best for a private entity, and they are grossly overstepping their boundaries in attempting to influence the outcome of this particular situation.

Personally, I hope the shareholders of Anheuser-Busch reject the offer and the organization remains a pillar of stability in St. Louis and throughout Missouri. After all, InBev Stadium just doesn’t have the same ring. With that said, if stockholders agree to a sale and the government continues to try invoking its (phantom) power to affect the outcome, it will just be another case of the government acting inappropriately and out of its realm of authority.

Ah … the politicking that takes place during an election year.

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