The exporters built up very large financial surpluses, and the fear that they could not spend all the money created grave concern for the world’s bankers and economic policymakers: The unspent tens of billions, sitting idle in bank accounts, could spell serious contraction and dislocation in the world economy. They need not have worried. The exporters, suddenly wealthy and certainly far richer than they might have dreamed, embarked on a dizzying program of spending: industrialization, infrastructure, subsidies, services, necessities, luxuries, weapons, waste, and corruption.
