om By Mar Yvette Easter is Sunday, April 24 this year (a little later than usual), but that just means you have more time to figure out where you’re going to ce In 2009, a devastating year for the global economy, U.S. multinational companies' worldwide employment shrunk by 4.1 percent to 31.3 million workers. But the cuts were much sharper at home than abroad. Domestic employment by the same companies shrunk by 5.3 percent, leaving 21.1 million with jobs, while their overseas counterparts lost 1.5 percent of their workforce, with 10.3 million still employed. "Emerging markets [are] growing at two-and-a-half times the speed of industrialized countries, which has made it imperative for companies to look abroad for opportunities," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. For large American multinationals, the geopraphical calculus is simple: Follow the money. "[The report] is not surprising at all. It is harder and harder for of the rest of the world, would fall into financial chaos. The recovery is still fragile. All this would force us and most of the rest of the world into a deeper recession or worse. No one in their right mind would threaten this. Yet it's talked about as if it's just another aspect of Washington politics -- a threat that might be carried out in early July when the Treasury runs out of ways to keep paying our debts. In fact, it's a giant game of highway chicken, and if one driver doesn't yield the crash will be catastrophic. Games of chicken are won by drivers able to convince their opponents they won't swerve. That gives a strategic advantage to Republicans backed by the Tea Party, who are so convinced government is evil they've signaled they'd be willing to risk it. But this shouldn't be a matter of political strategy. Disagreement about the nation's budget should be worked out through the constitutional process of majority votes in Congress, followed by the president's signature or veto, and Congress's right to override the veto. No group of legislators is entitled to threaten to crash the United States economy if its demands aren't met. The biggest surprise is the silence of American business and Wall Street. They have as much if not more to lose as anyone if this game ends in tragedy. Yet the GOP -- which big business and Wall Street fund -- insists on playing it. Why isn't the Business Roundtable decrying the use of this tactic? Where are the leaders of Wall Street? Where are the corporate statesmen? They should insist this game of chicken be called off or they'll stop the funding. Maybe they think the crash won't happen, that O