The Economist Magazine reports that since 1989 foreigners have owned more assets in America than Americans have owned overseas; in the jargon, the net international investment position (NIIP) has been negative.

One would expect that a negative NIIP would result in a negative sub component of the  Current account, namely the Net Interest Account. If foreigners have been investing more in the US than US companies invested in the rest of the word, one would expect that the US is paying more in interest payments to the rest of the world to generate a negative NIA. But no, the NIA has been constant at about 1% in the past decade… How could that be possible?