I watched a program on C-SPAN the other night, a history professor talking about WWI, WWII, and the US economy. One thing he said I had not realized:
The US was a debtor nation until 1914, having financed its way through the industrial revolution with both domestic - and especially foreign debt, but in 1914 that turned around as the world looked to us to finance (and supply) armaments for the Great War. He also said that we were not “the arsenal of democracy” as we were in the next war.
Anyway, he went on to say we were a creditor nation until 1986, when certain ballooning deficits turned us back to a debtor nation, and we have been ever since.
I have not looked up the figures or checked the statement, but it struck me as reasonable. And even logical.