What exactly is a Foreign Corporation?

[TheBigotBasher]

The problem of trying to restrict the Supreme Court ruling by banning Foreign Corporation involvement in US elections to me seems to be somewhat meaningless. These are the top 10 Global Corporations. Can you really say any of them are American, British, Japanese, Spanish or whatever?

General Electric
Corporate Headquarters around the World. Operates in Countries across the Globe, with massive variations in employment rights and pay.

Royal Dutch Shell
Corporate Headquarters around the World. Operates in Countries across the Globe, with massive variations in employment rights and pay.

Toyota Motor Company
Corporate Headquarters around the World. Operates in Countries across the Globe, with massive variations in employment rights and pay. Has actually manged to get Governments to pay them to set up factories.

ExxonMobil
Corporate Headquarters around the World. Operates in Countries across the Globe, with massive variations in employment rights and pay. Brand name often varies.

BP
Corporate Headquarters around the World. Operates in Countries across the Globe, with massive variations in employment rights and pay. Certainly can no longer be considered to be "British".

HSBC Holdings
After a one-year reign at the head of the Global 2000, this international banking giant fell back to the sixth position in International Company rankings. Corporate Headquarters around the World. Operates in Countries across the Globe, with massive variations in employment rights and pay.

AT&T
Most of the business is concentrated in the US, but AT&T uses AT&T UK to provide Global networking solutions to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Wal-Mart Stores
Trades Internationally and operates under different brand names. Walmart in Mexico is Walmex, in the United Kingdom it trades as Asda the Supermarket chain it acquired, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly-owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Banco Santander
Trades globally under a variety of names, although these are largely going through a re-branding exercise to become Santander. Now the largest Euro area bank after the Global banking collapse. Trades under the following names in the US:-

Santander Private Banking
Sovereign Bank
Santander Consumer USA Inc.
Santander Global Banking & Markets

Chevron
Oil Industry, trades Internationally in 180 Countries.

[Make7]

1. Ask Lou Dobbs - I'm sure he'll have an answer. ( n/t )

[Ardent15]

4. That made me lol

Haha.

[Oregone]

2. Maybe plurality of shareholder nationality may indicate this...

Or where the plurality of the beneficial economic activity is (do they produce and stimulate mostly China, while just selling in the US)?

[TheBigotBasher]

3. Or where the Company first started

(then Make7 is right Lou DObbs could help, he could demand their birth certificate).

Although what happens of they get taken over?

[Ozymanithrax]

5. Actually, GE's Corporate headquarters is in Fairfield, CT.

Now, the do have world wide holdings and foreign investors. But it is an American company.

Royal Dutch Shell's headquarters are in The Hague, Netherlands, not an American company.

It is easy to determine what an American company is, because they are formed in various states in the U.S. The problem is that many of them have large and even controlling interests by foreign nationals and even foreign countries. This deicsion sucks.

[TheBigotBasher]

6. It is not so easy

Shell Energy Environmental Solutions has a corporate HQ in Texas, Royal Dutch Shell can be excluded, but the business operating out of Texas is subject to US Employment and tax laws. So are they excluded?

[Ozymanithrax]

8. As I understand it, only a corporation registered in one of the states is..

an American Corporation.

For instance, BAE is a British company, but they established a company in the U.S., a subsidiary named BAE. It is wholly owned by the British Company, but because it was incorporated here, it is considered an American company and is a big player in the national security sector and is allowed to operate where BAE (the parent company headquartered in Britain) can not. That is confusing. But, all a company needs to do to be an "American Company" is to set up a subsidiary in one of the fifty states, even if it is wholly owned by foreign nationals.

By the way, I used to work for BAE, the wholly owned American subsidiary of BAE. Their corporate officers donated heavily to Randy Cunningham and other Republicans (American Corporate officers were all American citizens). We were told that because the head of the Company was a Brit, there were some areas of our company he could not visit for "National Security Reasons."

It is easy to determine which corporations are American corporations. But foreign nationals can easily set up an "American Company" to get around the laws that state that certain national security products can only be made by American Companies. If they can do it for national security reasons, then they can just as easily do it to for electoral reasons.

[TheBigotBasher]

10. Thanks that is exactly the point I am making.

Another example from way down the top list, Sony sells to the US as Sony America. That has a Corporate HQ in the US.

Corporations are International Conglomerates. They owe loyalty to no one Country.

[On the Road]

7. It Would Probably be Determined

by where the corporation is headquartered, but for that reason it's easy to evade by using a subsidiary with a US HQ or some similar arrangement. However the rules are written, it will likely be easy for corporations to "launder" money, to use Obama's description.

In reality, the confirm about foreign corporations is being used as an emotional toll to stir up support for trying to legally overturn the ban. The concern really should be about all corporations, but it wouldn't resonate without the "foreign" tag being applied. As such, I have no problem with it as a political maneuver.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. A corporation chartered in any state of the U.S. is an American corporation...

Even if it were owned by Ossama Bin Laden. (That would be an extreme case.)

BAE is a wholly owned American subsidiary of BAE (the British company) and chartered here in the U.S. so it can work in the National Security market where only "American Companies" can work.

Since BAE is wholly owned by the "British BAE" but an American Company, they could make as many advertisements as their British owner wants and it would still be legal.

Once free speech is separated from a living breathing human being, as it has with this terrible decision, the nationality of the speaker becomes a matter of paperwork.

[On the Road]

12. That is a Good Way to Phrase It

Of course, citizenship is a matter of paperwork in a sense, but it's infinitely more involved for much less political impact -- $2,000 and a single vote.

[rhett o rick]

11. I agree that the definition would be difficult. Ban them all. nt

[Swamp Rat]

13. The U.S. Government

[many a good man]

14. Multinational corporations show allegiance to NO country

Therefore they should be afforded no privilege or right.

[Swede]

15. List of companies of the People's Republic of China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China