History shows us that countries cannot sustainably finance investment through external borrowing
The crisis in the euro-zone peripheral countries from 2010 to 2013 and the chronic crisis in the major emerging countries (Argentina, Brazil, India, South Africa, Turkey ) since 2013 remind us that countries cannot sustainably finance their investment through external borrowing. If they do so, the accumulation of external debt ends up triggering a balance of payments crisis (non-residents refuse to hold the country's external debt, or at least to hold more of the country's external debt), which forces the country to rebalance its foreign trade by reducing domestic demand, and therefore through a recession. Even though the financial globalisation of the world is significant, it is not sufficient for a country to sustainably use savings from the rest of the world to finance its investments, with one exception, the United States .