For a start, America runs a large and growing surplus in services with the rest of the world.

ECONOMIST: The great hollowing-out myth | The

Yet the fund also expects the rest of the world combined to run a rising surplus (this includes a big drop in America's deficit).

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

One big difference is that in the 1960s the United States ran a current-account surplus and was a net creditor to the rest of the world.

ECONOMIST: A further steep decline in the dollar seems inevitable