Going forward, this then holds the promise of unwinding such imbalances by export of goods and services from the “periphery” and import of goods and services by the “core”. 4. As I said, these large and persistent current account imbalances represented “unearned” prosperity for deficit reserve currency countries and “unshared” prosperity for surplus countries.
Such a global economic order was inherently unsustainable, and unstable, from the word go. But the greatest good, and the highest virtue, as it were, of sustainable globalization is that, it does not permit, except in the very short term, “unearned” and “unshared” prosperity but delivers “sustainable prosperity” only if they are “earned” and “shared” prosperity!