Like Jimmy Goldsmith, the U.S. has become the world's richest nation by using other people's money to finance its own spectacular and continuing growth.

FORBES: Better to Borrow or Lend?

Sustainable growth also requires foreign money to finance capital investment and to bolster the stock market.

CNN: Waiting for a Cooldown

It worried that policy-making was stuck as former finance secretary Espiritu (who wanted easy money and strong public spending to boost growth) skirmished with central bank chief Rafael Buenaventura (who wanted to curb the budget deficit and keep the peso steady).

CNN: Act II for Estrada