The world economy has $60 trillion of wealth available for investment, a pool of capital that should grow by $1.5 trillion or so next year. That's the good news. The not so good news is that between now and then the Obama Administration needs to sell $2 trillion of Treasury paper to cover the economic stimulus program and related federal deficits. "The question is, who's going to buy it?" asks Catherine L. Mann, an economics professor at Bran-deis University and specialist on international capital flows.rnForeigners already own roughly 43% of the $7.5 trillion in publicly held Treasury debt, led by China with $750 billion-the residue of its lopsided trade relationship with the U.S. Manns research suggests that foreigners typically allocate about 20 cents of each additional dollar of wealth toward U.S. assets of all types, meaning either they have to buy a lot more Treasurys or the U.S. will come up short.
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