THE MONEY MARKET

Hokitika Guardian, 9 June 1928, Page 4

THE MONEY MARKET

WORLD’S CHIEF CREDITOR. Contrary to tlie general impression that the United States is “the world’s greatest creditor,” which has been gaining headway for some time, a survey just published for the New York Trust Company asserts that American investments in foreign securities are still less than those of Great Britain and that “this country’s net credit position has not increased as much as England’s in the past seven years. The total off American investments in foreign securities is at present estimated at 13,000,000,000 dollars, while British foreign investments of the same kind have reached about 20,000,000,003 dollars, the article says.

The article summarises briefly London’s rise as a world creditor following the Napoleonic wars, which drove the Continental nation to seek financial assistance in England, establishing a credit, position in that country which it maintained until 1914. During the war Great Britain was forced to sell a large portion of these securities, but foreign issues floated in Lindon in recent years liavo offset this liquidation, it says. It refers to the increase of United States credit resulting from its position during the war, when it was called upon to supply in extraordinary demand for goods to Europe. 'Since that time, it says, the flotation of foreign securities in the United States has “increased rather than lessened,” until now this country “is approaching a position similar to that of Great Britain before the war. It asserts that the United States’ credit position is of a permanent ua- | ture, and that > “borrowing by foreign corporations aro likely to be a continuous feature of its investment market.”