U.S. foreign debt

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Sep 27 11:48:11 PDT 1999


Rakesh Bhandari wrote:


>So I agree with Doug and Fred
>Moseley in his published writings (Capital and Class, Monthly Review,
>Historical Materialism)that a cut off of credit and correction in the
>asset market could indeed plunge the real US economy into at least deep
>recession. It just seems to me that the US has much greater power to
>finance very large current account deficits than either is
>recognizing--even if the dollar remains devalued.

You know I'm no doom & gloomer, Rakesh. This is all speculation on the possible. But the U.S. has been financing its deficits with considerable freedom for decades; you don't get a net debt position of 22% of GDP in your own currency without some indulgence coming from your creditors.

Dug



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