The existing balances on the current accounts of the major industrialised countries have given rise to demands, addressed particularly to German economic policy-makers, which amount to a revitalisation of the "locomotive theory". However, were the world economy once more to be "reflated" in...

The disequilibria in the world economy, of which the massive trade and current account deficits of the USA are but one manifestation, have reached dangerous proportions. The following article presents a number of scenarios to show how they may develop in future.