A country-by-country listing of current account balances - find the US

cia.gov

19 points·abalashov··9 comments

These values would mean more if they were per capita, but they're still impressive.

Per capita current account balance (according to CIA factbook reported population, and current acct balance), sorted by total current account balance:

1: China: $276

2: Germany: $3242

3: Japan: $1145

15: Sweden: $3893

42: Israel: $255

79: Afghanistan: -$2

135: Chile: -$95

179: Portugal: -$2245

189: UK: -$1190

190: Spain: -$3766

191: US: -$1872

If it were expressed as a percentage of GDP, the list of numbers might even be meaningful.

Did anyone else just immediately scroll to the bottom to look for the U.S.? That's what I did, as that's where I expected to see it. I had to scroll up to look at the rest of the countries.

China ranks 1 in CAB and ranks 82 in Satisfaction with Life Index

America ranks 191 in CAB and ranks 23 in Satisfaction with Life Index

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index

Germany is #35. If anyone is striking the right balance, it's them They are the world's largest exporter, ahead of China!

What are they doing so right?

Many economists don't think it's a good idea to grow huge positive current account balances either. Eg, this article: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1... The problem is, if you do that, a large proportion of your savings are abroad, denominated in a foreign currency.

I vote Finland - #27 by CAB with $10 billion, and #6 by satisfaction with life.

You got me curious about who is striking the "right balance" -- well, BEST balance. With near 40 mil at #12 and #2 in satisfaction with life, my vote is with Switzerland.

It's not that bad if you pay with money you print yourself.

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