Rather, they were the gross flows of finance from the US to Europe that allowed European banks to leverage their balance sheets, and the large, matching flows of money from European banks into toxic US subprime-linked securities. Both critics and defenders of global imbalances almost entirely overlooked these gross flows in both directions across the North Atlantic.
这并不是要否认国际资本流的推波助澜作用。但重要的资本流不是来自世界其余部分、为美国经常项目赤字提供了融资的净资本流；而是美国流向欧洲、让欧洲银行提高资产负债表杠杆的毛金融流以及与之对应的从欧洲银行流向与有毒美国按揭相关证券的资金流。全球失衡的批评者和辩护者都几乎完全忽略了北大西洋的这两股相向而动的毛资本流。