> of the onion. What is the material interest underlying
> a worry about the national savings rate. Is it
> anti-inflationism and anti-public sector (as I
> have proposed), or other stuff?
Well, US ruling elites have been fretting about the $2.1 trillion they hired from Japan and the EU for some time now, but the trigger was probably the fact that EU interest rates are now rising smartly, thanks to an improving economy, while Japan may end its zero-interest rate policy any day now. The cost of borrowing overseas capital is going to climb dramatically pretty soon, at the exact moment that the US needs to roll over lots of debt. Real hegemons don't borrow, they lend.
Let's just say now would be a good time to dump dollar assets and buy euros.
-- Dennis