The True Cost of Hegemony: Huge Debt
Foreign investors now have claims on the United States amounting to about $8 trillion of its financial assets. That’s the result of the ever-larger American balance-of-payments deficits — totaling nearly $3 trillion — since 1982. Last year, the balance-of-payments deficit, the gap between the amount of money that flows into the country and the amount that flows out, was about 5 percent of gross national product. This year it may be larger still.
An interesting article that raises some questions. Niall Ferguson, the author also raises the spector of the rising Euro (Krugman disagrees). See also: concerns about fiat systems, national debt
Via Ming, who’s been covering all sorts of relatedness lately.