Brenner on devaluation

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Mar 11 17:05:44 PST 1999


Barbara Laurence wrote:


>US strength has been partly a function of Japanese and European investments
>in the US ( I mean, new real investment), while no one invests in Germany
>and only a handful in Japan. I mean, hasn't there been a reallocation of
>productive (industrial) capital to the US, esp. Dept. I, and hasn't this
>been a factor in developing a higher X/GDP ratio as "liberalized" financial
>mkts?

Relocation in relative terms maybe, with the U.S. gaining world market share in investment, but here's what the flow of funds accounts say about foreign direct investment flows for nonfinancial corps (inconvenienly not broken into Dept I/II), expressed as a percentage of capital expenditures. The U.S. nonfinancial sector was a big capital importer in the late 1980s, but it's back to being an exporter.

Doug

----

U.S. NONFIANNCIAL CORPORATIONS foreign direct investment

as % of capital expenditures,

1952-98Q3

US FDI

abroad FDI in US net

1952 3.3% 0.4% 2.9%

1953 2.6% 0.4% 2.2%

1954 2.7% 0.3% 2.4%

1955 2.4% 0.4% 1.9%

1956 5.1% 0.5% 4.6%

1957 6.7% 0.4% 6.3%

1958 4.1% 0.3% 3.8%

1959 3.4% 0.5% 2.8%

1960 7.6% 0.6% 6.9%

1961 6.9% 0.7% 6.2%

1962 6.4% 0.7% 5.7%

1963 7.5% 0.5% 7.0%

1964 7.1% 0.6% 6.5%

1965 7.6% 0.8% 6.8%

1966 6.2% 0.5% 5.7%

1967 5.8% 1.0% 4.9%

1968 3.8% 1.0% 2.8%

1969 5.5% 1.4% 4.0%

1970 8.0% 1.8% 6.2%

1971 6.9% 0.3% 6.6%

1972 5.1% 0.9% 4.2%

1973 7.6% 2.1% 5.5%

1974 5.7% 3.4% 2.3%

1975 11.1% 1.9% 9.2%

1976 6.4% 2.3% 4.1%

1977 5.1% 1.7% 3.3%

1978 6.1% 3.1% 3.0%

1979 9.9% 3.7% 6.2%

1980 7.9% 5.2% 2.7%

1981 3.9% 6.7% -2.8%

1982 4.0% 3.0% 1.0%

1983 3.7% 2.7% 1.0%

1984 3.4% 4.8% -1.4%

1985 2.6% 4.8% -2.3%

1986 4.1% 9.3% -5.2%

1987 6.4% 14.6% -8.1%

1988 1.8% 19.0% -17.2%

1989 4.9% 15.7% -10.8%

1990 7.2% 15.1% -7.9%

1991 7.9% -0.7% 8.6%

1992 9.2% 1.3% 7.9%

1993 11.7% 4.0% 7.6%

1994 14.3% 8.5% 5.8%

1995 15.6% 9.4% 6.1%

1996 11.9% 10.7% 1.2%

1997 14.8% 14.5% 0.3%

1998 15.2% 7.1% 8.1%



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