• alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 hours ago

    This is part of a more systemic issue.

    In general, American capital has been buying up European assets for the past 20 years at a large scale.

    Because of the way we (EU) prioritize workers, society and customers and they (US) prioritize shareholders and capital, their companies are always in a better position to take over our companies.

    We need to protect our European companies in the same way China and Japan protect their companies.

    • protist@mander.xyz
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      9 hours ago

      You’re really oversimplifying this situation, European multinationals do the exact same thing to US brands. Examples include Nestle, Unilever, and AB InBev, among many others.

      Multinational corporations make a boycott of a specific country’s products difficult, because oftentimes the factories that make the products may be within your country even if the top of the chain is located somewhere else.

      • alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 hours ago

        No, you are attacking a straw man.

        Of course it’s not black and white, but the overall balance is much more towards American capital than European capital.

        Even for a company like Unilever, American institutional investors hold a much larger share than European investors hold in Mondelez.

        That’s the point I was making.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          6 hours ago

          I’m European and even I’m part of the American institutional investor class.

          Retirement funds in stock based ETFs = everyone is part of these large insitutional funds. Until my requested change taked place, my fund mostly holds Blackrock (iShares) run ETFs and a few other American ones. Soon it’ll be Xtrackers and a few other European ones with no US specific fund, but I’m not rich so this is a drop in the sea.

        • protist@mander.xyz
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          9 hours ago

          The GDP of the US is about $30 trillion USD while the GDP of the EU + UK is about $23 trillion USD. Europe has enough capital to effectively compete with the US, and it does. “American institutional investors” include a ton of foreign capital. This isn’t a “David vs Goliath” situation