Before 2008 the net financial flow from Asia to the United States could reasonably be construed as the financial counterpart to America’s trade deficit with Asia. By contrast, the financial flows between Europe and the United States made up a financial circulatory system quite independent of the trade connections between the two. Across the Pacific, from Asia to the United States, money flowed one way. In the North Atlantic financial system it flowed both ways, both in and out of the United States.
