Note to Self: Six Interesting Questions About Corporate Nationality:

1. Does it matter that a huge hunk of Citigroup is owned by Alaweed
   ibn Saud rather than some guy who lives on Kentucky or Alberta?

2. Does it matter that Applied Materials--the company that makes the
   equipment other companies use to make the chips other companies use to
   make the gadgets other companies use to market the lifestyle--has its
   headquarters in San Jose, California rather than in Stuttgart or
   Shanghai?

3. Does it matter that Applied Materials has its engineers in San
   Jose, California and not in Kuala Lampur or Rio de Janeiro?

4. Does it matter that venture capital firm Kleiner-Perkins is in Palo
   Alto, California and not in Tokyo or Milan?

5. Does it matter that Citigroup's headquarters is in New York rather
   than in London or Bombay?

6. Does it matter that Apple's iPods are made in Shenzhen, China,
   rather than in Austin, Texas, or Window Rock, Arizona?

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Related Issues:

• National regulation: class A stock * National regulation: official supervision and merchant management * Sovereign wealth funds * IBM and Lenovo * James Fallows on the :-) and China: resources, assembly, and design
  and marketing * Political pressure, financial pressure, and post-WWI technology
  transfer from Germany to the U.S.; was political or national financial
  pressure used? * Peter Drucker and his predictions about pension-fund socialism * Alto Adige and Trentino * Gazprom and P&O?