For years, U.S. companies have been expanding overseas with Napoleonic gusto, swallowing up local firms from Stockholm to Singapore. Now a counterthrust is gathering momentum. European and Japanese businessmen are beginning to see the U.S. as a vast market ripe for exploitation; they are rushing to open Stateside banks, factories and distribution centers.
Direct foreign investment in the U.S. is believed to have increased by more than $1 billion in 1972, one of the largest yearly rises ever. Foreign-owned business assets still total only about $15 billion, compared to just over $90 billion in American investments abroad, but the foreign stake...
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