Over the past year, we have reported often about the foreign corporate invasion of America. (Read what we wrote here and here.) Last week the New York Times crunched the numbers from 2007 and revealed some shocking figures (emphasis ours throughout):

For much of the world, the United States is now on sale at discount prices. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world’s largest market.Last year, foreign investors poured a record $414 billion into securing stakes in American companies, factories and other properties through private deals and purchases of publicly traded stock, according to Thomson Financial, a research firm. That was up 90 percent from the previous year and more than double the average for the last decade. It amounted to more than one fourth of all announced deals for the year, Thomson said.

Early reports on foreign investment in 2008 suggest that this trend will not turn around any time soon. “During the first two weeks of this year, foreign businesses agreed to invest another $22.6 billion for stakes in American companies—more than half the value of all announced deals,” the Times reported. “If a recession now unfolds and the dollar drops further, the pace could accelerate, economists say.”

The Times, though, quickly brushed aside any cause we might have for concern:

The surge of foreign money has injected fresh tension into a running debate about America’s place in the global economy. It has supplied state governors with a new development strategy—attracting foreign money. And it has reinvigorated sometimes jingoistic worries about foreigners securing control of America’s fortunes, a narrative last heard in the 1980s as Americans bought up Hondas and Rockefeller Center landed in Japanese hands.

The same thing happened during the 1980s (under a Republican administration, the writer must have been dying to add). So don’t fall for jingoistic worries. Just vote Democrat.