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Article: Debt and Investment, Foreign
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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DEBT AND INVESTMENT, FOREIGN
DEBT AND INVESTMENT, FOREIGN.
In the language of international financial balances, the net of all the claims on people or governments of foreign nations held in the United States, less the reverse claims held by foreigners, is the foreign debt owed to or by this country. Actually the obligations are of many different types
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some representing borrowing, or what would domestically be regarded as debt, and some representing investments in the equity of foreign companies. The relative quantities of these various types of paper have changed greatly over the course of U.S. history.
Prior to World War I, "foreign debt" meant the amount the United States owed ...