Global imbalances have returned to the fore of policy discussions. In the first decade of the century, before the Global Crisis of 2008, large current account imbalances came under the spotlight. The US and several European countries ran large current account deficits, which appeared to have been financed by large current account surpluses by China, other emerging markets in East Asia, and oil exporters. The nature and importance of expanding current account imbalances – both surpluses and deficits – dominated academic and policy debates. The onset of the Global Crisis, accompanied as it was by a compression of ... (full story)