Accentuate the positive

A little more than a decade ago the Japanese indulged their insatiable desire for American cultural and commercial landmarks. In what seemed like a matter of months, Japanese companies, competing with each other to gain prestige, gobbled up the Rockefeller Center, the Pebble Beach golf course, Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios and even a piece of Goldman Sachs. Americans, or at least a number of the noisiest American journalists and politicians, became very upset by this trend. They worried that their investment bankers and movie moguls were being taken advantage of by these shrewd, new...