Of course, so long as the US runs annual current-account deficits of almost a trillion dollars, it will need to borrow from strategic rivals such as China, Russia, and unstable Middle East petro-states, which increasingly will lend in the form of high-yield equity investments rather than low-yield T-bills. So unless the US starts to save more, it will find it hard to complain about the form – equity rather than debt – that the financing of its external deficit takes.