The US also has a big deficit on its capital account, which has made it the world's largest debtor nation.

BBC: US record trade deficit

We are no longer a net producing nation, but a consuming-debtor nation.

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This is where the Fed's unscientific narrative is dead wrong: That we need more debt and credit to fix our debtor nation problem.

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The United States is the largest debtor nation in history.

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If you walk away from this exhibit with one general impression, it's this: We've long been a debtor nation, and we've long fought over how to finance and pay for that debt.

WSJ: Checks & Balances | Museum of American Finance | Of Debt and Taxes | By Mark Yost

What many forget is that it was during the Reagan years that we went from being a creditor nation to a debtor nation as President Reagan was required to borrow heavily in order to make up for the income shortfall that resulted from so massive a tax cut.

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Risk: The precedent established by granting long-term rescheduling or forgiveness for a resource-rich nation such as Russia will be called intolerable, and sure to lead to as many as 30 other debtor nations demanding the same preferential treatment from Western creditors.

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