America for sale

"In the summer of 2008, Esmark - the nation's fifth-largest steel producer - accepted a purchase offer from the Russian firm Severstal. It was the culmination of an intense courtship among potential suitors from three continents, emboldened by the weakening dollar." "The Esmark story, told here, raises an important question: Is it wise to allow foreigners to purchase critical and strategic American assets? No, say authors Craig Bouchard and James Koch. In America for Sale: How the Foreign Pack Circled and Devoured Esmark, Bouchard and Koch use the sale of Esmark- a transaction that put over 50 percent of American steel production into foreign hands - to make the case that this trend presents a clear and present danger to the economic future of the United States of America." "America for Sale recaps the amazing, sometimes incredible events leading up to the sale of Esmark, including intense pressure from the United Steelworkers Union and the company's major public shareholder to make a decision not in the best interest of all shareholders. It also analyzes the efforts by the Esmark board of directors to observe its fiduciary duty, details the company's "poison pill" effort to raise its sales price, and describes the actions of Leo Gerard and Ron Bloom of the United Steelworkers Union- which led to some surprising alliances." "The authors - one Esmark's president and vice chairman of the board, the other an Esmark director, preeminent American economist, and former university president - also provide their own assessment of the Esmark story, arguing that the widespread sale of American strategic assets to foreigners at bargain prices is not in our national interest. Finally, they offer legislative and policy prescriptions aimed at ensuring that U.S. business doesn't devolve into a giant garage sale - a bargain bazaar for foreigners seeking to take advantage of the coming decline of the U.S. dollar."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.