U.S. foreign debt

[David Welch]

Silly question, but doesn't an increase in US foreign debt imply that US
capital is flowing abroad, purchasing real assets and hence foreign
countries accumulate dollar claims? So we can infer that profit rates are
too low in the US but large enough elsewhere for a successful expansion
(otherwise why would capital move abroad). Assuming profit rates are
maintained and the US has the military muscle to keep other countries from
adopting Malaysian like financial controls, couldn't foreign debt be
expanded indefinitely?

On Sat, Sep 25, 1999 at 02:45:47PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> U.S. military and political power puts a limit on how much we could 
> be foreclosed upon, but still the country could suffer a capital 
> outflow and be powerless to do anything about it except raise 
> interest rates.
> 
> Russia is a wreck, so I'm not sure just what all those bombs have done for it.
> 
> Doug
>