Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/65

Rh from London to New York during 1919-1920 amounting to $200,000,000. These credit items of $700,000,000 have to be added to the official estimate and increase the unfunded balance to $2,903,000,000 as of Dec. 31, 1920 and $3,408,000,000 as of Oct. 1, 1921.

Attention is to be drawn to the difference between the bases of the estimates of Doctor Anderson and the Federal Reserve Board. The former estimated the position as between the United States and Europe, while the latter took account of the position between the United States and the rest of the world. The Board points out that “this balance with the world is not to be identified with our balance with Europe taken alone. There is no necessary conflict between the figure ($3,408,000,000) here given and the somewhat higher estimates which have been made of Europe’s unfunded debt to private creditors in the United States.’’ The reference here is obviously to Doctor Anderson’s estimate. Besides having confidence in the quality of Doctor Anderson’s work in general and the benefit of numerous discussions of this matter with him, I am aware of the existence of authoritative data supporting his contention as to the position at the end of 1918. Making allowances for the difference between the bases of estimation, the recent report of the Federal Reserve Board may be regarded as a substantial confirmation of Doctor Anderson’s work. In my inventory I use the figure of $2,900,000,000 for the net unfunded credit balance of the United States at the end of 1920.

In 1914 the amount of the American securities that were owned abroad was estimated at about $4,500,000,-