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Klein: Developing nations defy theory by running surpluses to buy Western assets

Matthew C. Klein · They Called The Trade Wars & China's Housing Crash | Nikhil Kamath | WTF is Finance Ep 4 · Nikhil Kamath · Jul 28, 2026 · at 9:12

Economist Matthew C. Klein discusses why global capital flows diverge from traditional economic theory to invest in rich English-speaking nations.

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“Places that in theory ought to be, you know, a sort of standard theory should be having trade deficits because of their investment needs, actually having surpluses, and sending you know, buying financial assets, rather than borrowing, their net lending to places that are rich, like the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, because their financial systems are more, are accommodating and sort of meet that need.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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