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International Monetary Fund
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Keywords:
PJ; President Ford's Council of Economic Advisors; Per Jacobsson lecture; board of directors of the Foundation; managing director of the IMF; career in the medium
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Abstract

This paper focuses on the developing countries, which accounted for nearly half the value of those surpluses, were apparently unable to find sufficiently profitable investments at home that overcame market and political risk. The United States a decade ago likely could not have run up today’s near $800 billion annual deficit for the simple reason that we could not have attracted the foreign savings to finance it. In 1995, for example, total cross-border saving was less than $300 billion. The long-term updrift in this broader swath of unconsolidated deficits and mostly offsetting surpluses of economic entities has been persistent but gradual for decades, probably generations. However, the component of that broad set that captures only the net foreign financing of the imbalances of the individual US economic entities, our current account deficit, increased from negligible in the early 1990s to 6.2 percent of our GDP by 2006.

Balance of Payments Imbalances

Alan Greenspan

Washington D.C. • 2007

ISSN 0252-3108

Editor: Michael Harrup

Cover design and production: IMF Multimedia Services Division

Typesetting: Choon Lee

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Contents

  • Foreword

  • Opening Remarks

  • Andrew Crockett

  • Balance of Payments Imbalances

  • Alan Greenspan

  • Appendix: Supporting Data

  • Questions and Answers

  • Biography

  • The Per Jacobsson Lectures

  • The Per Jacobsson Foundation

Foreword

The 2007 Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture was delivered by Dr. Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System of the United States, at the IFC Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on October 21. Sir Andrew Crockett, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Per Jacobsson Foundation, chaired the event.

The lecture was delivered in conjunction with the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, as is traditionally the case. Per Jacobsson Foundation events, which include not only lectures but also occasional symposia on topics in finance, economic policy, and international cooperation, are also sometimes held in the context of the Annual General Meeting of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Switzerland.

The Per Jacobsson Foundation was established in 1964 to commemorate the work of Per Jacobsson (1894-1963) as a statesman in international monetary affairs. Per Jacobsson was the third Managing Director of the IMF (1956-63) and had earlier served as the Economic Adviser of the BIS (1931-56). Per Jacobsson Foundation lectures and contributions to symposia are expressions of personal views and intended to be substantial contributions to the field in which Per Jacobsson worked. They are distributed free of charge by the Foundation. Further information about the Foundation may be obtained from the Secretary of the Foundation or may be found on the website, http://www.perjacobsson.org

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Cover Balance of Payments Imbalances, by Alan Greenspan
Balance of Payments Imbalances, by Alan Greenspan
ISBN:
9781451950113
ISSN:
0252-3108
Publication Date:
12 Dec 2007
Publisher:
International Monetary Fund
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451950113.028
Pages:
38