The remaining question is, what accounts for the high return on U.S. direct investment claims? This high return may in part reflect a risk premium associated with investments in emerging economies.
The determination of exchange rates between the dollar, the euro and the yen has been thus left entirely to market forces. Fluctuations have been large: over the past 20 years the ratio between the minimum and the maximum value of the dollar-euro and dollar yen exchange rates was almost 2:1.