The U.S. trade deficit was twice as large a percentage of U.S. GDP in 1989 as in 1979 although the value of the dollar and the level of U.S. demand relative to foreign demand were roughly comparable in both years. This article investigates the reasons for the deficit's magnitude in the late...

International financial transactions have grown in recent years far faster than has our ability to understand their significance for national economies. This article seeks to explain the rise in bank loans from banks outside the United States to U.S. businesses. The article looks at the...

With the rise in foreign direct investment in U.S. manufacturing during the 1980s, the affiliates of foreign multinationals have become potentially important sources of improved U.S. international competitiveness. This article describes the growing foreign presence in the U.S. manufacturing...

This article argues that high interest rates abroad have substantially depressed private investment in most foreign members of the Group of Seven during the 1990s. Business investment has been especially hard hit and housing construction disrupted, although the effect on housing has been offset...