Читать книгу Financial Cold War. A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets онлайн

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In the immediate aftermath of WW2, the industrial base of Europe was either destroyed or had been given over to the manufacture of war supplies. Due to its geographic position, the US had been spared much of this destruction and had seen its economy grow to account for roughly half of global GDP. US exports were in strong demand and the need to pay for these in dollars meant that the rest of the world faced a dollar shortage. Through Marshall Plan aid, the US injected $17 billion into Europe in the form of reconstruction grants. Around $4.4 billion in similar aid was given towards the reconstruction of Japan.ssss1 Between 1947 and 1958, the US encouraged the outflow of dollars in order to provide liquidity to the international economy and, from 1950, began running a balance of payments deficit. As the post-war recovery took hold, offshore dollar balances began to accumulate. Initially, these were deposited with European banks, which in turn placed them back into the US banking system via their US branches, subsidiaries or correspondent banks.