Jinshi sent a quite interesting picture!

Assets held by foreign investors in the United States have risen to about $39 trillion, a historic high, with nearly $20 trillion flowing into the U.S. stock market.

I went to look up the relevant data, as of the first quarter of 2026:

U.S. foreign assets: $43.37 trillion;

Foreign holdings of U.S. assets: $64.64 trillion;

Net international investment position: -$21.27 trillion.

In other words, the U.S. owes the world $21 trillion. If it were another ordinary debtor country, this number would be shocking.

But not for the United States; it can let asset price fluctuations allow creditors to bear external adjustments.

For example, foreigners currently hold nearly $20 trillion in U.S. stocks.

Assuming U.S. stocks fall by 20% overall, with other conditions unchanged, foreigners would lose $4 trillion on paper.

The U.S. does not need to export $4 trillion worth of goods, does not need a $4 trillion budget surplus, and does not need to repay anyone $4 trillion in cash; its external liabilities' market value will naturally decrease.

So, thinking about the problem the other way around is even more interesting:

If the entire world has already bet $64 trillion worth of assets on the United States, who is actually more afraid of a collapse of U.S. assets?

This is a very perverse self-reinforcing mechanism of capital, a reflexive capital cycle, which is beneficial for U.S. stocks in the long run!

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