WSJ on wealth

[Seth Ackerman]

Brad DeLong wrote:

> As long as the U.S. foreign debt is denominated in dollars, I ain't
> worried...
> 
> 
	You seem to be saying that as long as our foreign debt is in
dollars, we can always pay down our debt by printing more dollars. But
couldn't that just scare investors even more, causing them to shift their
money into euros? And couldn't it effectively spell an end to the era when
America could habitually run big, chronic external deficits? 

	And if America couldn't run big, chronic deficits anymore, how would
the world economy keep growing? After all, didn't U.S. imports represent
something like half of 1998's world GDP growth? Those imports were financed
by foreign borrowing, right?

	Seth