Nickel nationalism

My Wednesday column is on the strange outburst of economic nationalism on Bay Street, owing to the giant Phelps Dodge bid for Inco and Falconbridge. Terry Corcoran has another take. He notes that there are just 200 jobs in Inco's head office -- the putative cause of all this shirt-rending, though Phelps Dodge has stated publicly that Inco's head office will stay in Toronto. Let's say there's another 200 at Falconbridge. Round the total up to 500. By my calculations, the Phelps offer is worth about $5-billion more to shareholders than the Teck and Xstrata offers combined. So blocking the Phelps deal would amount to forcibly redistributing $5-billion from shareholders in Inco/Falconbridge to shareholders in Teck and (foreign-owned) Xstrata. All to keep at most 500 head office jobs in Canada. That's $10-million a job! And, of course, that's just the gross figure. How many more jobs could that $5-billion create if left to Inco/Falconbridge shareholders to reinvest? ADDENDUM: How much "hollowing out" is going on? Foreign-controlled corporations accounted for 21.9% of all corporate assets held in Canada in 2004. That was down from 22.8% in 2001. About two-thirds of all foreign ownership is US. UPDATE: This research paper shows (p. 3) the trend of US ownership of the Canadian economy from 1965 to 2000. At 12% of all economic assets, the US share by 2000 was nearly one-third below its early 1970s peak.