>-What is the US external debt (both overall and expressed as % GNP)?
As of the first quarter of 2001, U.S. net credit market debt was $2.2 trillion, or a record 22% of GDP. (Well maybe it was higher in the 19th century, but I don't have numbers on that.) If you throw in the balance on stocks and foreign direct investment, it falls to 19%. In the late 1960s, it was about +3% - and +7% if you include stocks and FDI. It went solidly negative in 1982, and has been heading pretty much straight down ever since.
Doug