Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a very large and growing portion of the US that maintains no savings at all. In fact it's the opposite and many are slowly spending their way into perpetual credit card debt.
It's essential to the way the system works. One person's money is another person's debt. Normally the government would take on enough debt to ensure everyone had money, but the USA is a weird case.
Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
191–200 of 216 posts
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What are they going to swap 8 trillion dollars into? For African raw materials, Chinese commodities and components, etc - like everybody else with lots of $$. If you're paying attention, that also means higher inflation in the US. Thanks, GOP geniuses... of course the rich, of which the admin is full of, love inflation because it makes them richer. If you complain about something, they'd blame China and Maduro, mis…
Those are thin markets, and not necessarily even open to most EU investors. Also, good luck getting your investment back when there's another coup or civil war in the target country. Major investors have always had some level of international diversification and that will continue. But this recent EU move won't have any significant impact.
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Those are thin markets, and not necessarily even open to most EU investors... coup or civil war in the target country. I didn't say anything about "investing" in any closed markets or target countries. This isn't complicated but I'm sensing some entrenched and overly optimistic preconceptions getting in the way.
It becomes complicated pretty quickly if you're trying to deploy large amounts of capital into small, unsophisticated markets regardless of whether you label it "investing" or something else. But you seem to be confused about how this stuff works in the real world.
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately the US Dollar is devaluing. In the past year the dollar went down by 11%. That means SP 500 which has gone up 13% in the past year has only gone up 2% for a European.
It's a matter of perspective, for the US administration, that 11% drop is reason for celebration. Their goal is to make American blue collar manufacturing jobs viable again, and part of the plan is to make it cheaper for other countries to buy their goods. It's not the first time the dollar has been intentionally devalued.
It's one of many stated reasons.
What the real reasons are is not really important IMO. But my money would be on something much more sinister and selfish
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
This means that from a European point of view, US investments are 11% cheaper. This could be attractive depending on your view of the future of the US dollar and US stock market.
Well no thanks, the US is going the same path Hungary and Turkey, just with a 10 year difference, autocrats are never good for business. As soon as Trump came in power I sold all my dollars and I was wise to do it. Expect things to go much more worse from here, this is only the beginning. For now the FED has relatively been untouched, it's not going to stay pristine forever.
While it would be great if people of the US started to show some backbone and resist this fascist takeower, I'm quite pessimistic. What's going on makes me really sad.
OTOH it's not too late!! We have seen trends like this turned around before.
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except in a floating exchange rate that isn’t what happens. For somebody to leave the Eurozone for the Dollar zone there has to be somebody coming in the opposite direction to exchange with. Macron is still talking nonsense of course. The Euros never left in the first place.
> For somebody to leave the Eurozone for the Dollar zone there has to be somebody coming in the opposite direction to exchange with. Does that mean trade imbalances don’t exist?
That’s why “imbalances” never close.
If goods and services were exchanged for little models of the Eiffel Tower nobody would say there was an imbalance. Yet we do when we exchange for Euros.
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its worse than you think: The United States is currently experiencing a massive, accelerating debt crisis, with the gross federal debt surpassing $38 trillion as of late 2025. It is growing by $1 trillion roughly every 82 days. This debt level, which has exceeded 120% of the U.S. GDP,
To be fair, the US has been growing its federal debt my whole life. It is one of those things that seems unsustainable but then it continues. Of course, it is sustainable because of US dollar dominance in the world and that may be faltering with Trump, especially if the Federal Reserve loses its independence.
I really do wonder what's going to end up happening with the debt...I think we've crossed the point of no return, but I'm not sure. Interest on the debt now exceeds military spending, and US military spending is about 40% of all NATO defense spending.
I've thought about this since I was young, and was fascinated that no one thought it was going to become a problem. There was a nice moment in the late 90s where the US reduced debt, but that was a blip.
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also helps that most people don't start with an extremely large student loan when they have finished their education.
It helps that Europeans can go to a hospital or take an ambulance without having to open a GoFundMe account.
Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#199Re: Macron says €300B in EU savings sent to the US every year will be invested in EU
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
When private individuals have their money in savings accounts, aren't the banks investing that money anyway ?
Practically, yes. But in economics they often classify “savings” only as being in a bank account. So if you “save” money in a 401k, where it’s invested in stocks, bonds or ETFs or whatever, then it’s not recorded as savings because they consider that “investment”. So when someone says EU saving is 18.79% vs US saving of 3.50%, most of the wealth saved by Americans isn’t showing up in that comparison because it’s not…
I think a big a part is that a lot of EU money is invested in the US instead, and I am looking forward for that to stop..