Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/64

42 position at the end of 1918. Doctor Anderson assumed that Europe had credits in the United States at that time to the amount of $200,000,000. Doctor Williams computes $2,057,000,000. This is a very shadowy subject. In spite of the figures that are adduced it seems incredible that Europe could have had private credits in this country to the amount of two billion dollars at that time. As for 1919-1920 Doctor Williams’ computation of the unfunded balance in favor of the United States is $2,673,000,000 against Doctor Anderson’s $3,772,000,000.

The subject is commercially of major importance, and for that reason it became highly controversial, owing to the difference among these estimates. The Federal Reserve Board was led to return to the subject, and a revised analysis and estimate by it was published in the Federal Reserve Bulletin for November, 1921. According to this revised estimate the net balance on open account owed by the United States on Dec. 31, 1918, was $882,000,000. In 1919 the net addition to the unfunded credit balance of the United States was computed to be $1,353,000,000, with the addition of $1,732,000,000 in 1920 and $505,000,000 in the first nine months of 1921. According to this computation the net unfunded credit balance of the United States on Oct. 1, 1921 was $2,708,000,000, subject to modifications that will be noted presently. Omitting the accrual in 1921, the position at the end of 1920 was a net unfunded credit balance of $2,203,000,000 at that time. The modifications previously intimated relate to unofficial estimates as to European settlements of cancelled war contracts amounting to $500,000,000 and the transferal of deposit balances by Far Eastern banks