Capital magnet

Balances of trade are currently the subject of fraught discussion, prompted by the new president of the country with the world’s largest deficit. The United States imported over USD 1 trillion more of goods than it exported in 2024. Another facet of the discussion is net international investment positions – the difference between a nation’s foreign assets and its foreign liabilities. Contributing factors include government and private debt, as well as stocks and other assets. This is a figure that is greater again in the US than anywhere else, just with a minus sign in front this time. When Donald Trump was in his mid-30s, the US was by far the world’s largest international creditor. By 1990, it was the largest debtor. As of 2024, the difference between the amount of US assets owned by foreigners, and how much of the rest of the world is owned by Americans, is almost the same size as US GDP.

Source: IMF, Atlantic Economic Journal, J. Paul Getty