Has the US exorbitant privilege become a rich world privilege? Rates of return and foreign assets from a global perspective, 1970-2022

Such a privilege is translated in net income transfers from the poorest to the richest equivalent to 1% of the GDP of top 20% countries (and 2% of GDP for top 10% countries), alleviating the current account balance of the latter while deteriorating that of the bottom 80% by about 2- 3% of their GDP. [...] However, the System of National Accounts (SNA) only considers this aspect in the context of FDI income, and assumes that the entire flow of undistributed profits belongs to the country where the firm is located in the case of portfolio income. [...] In the next subsection, the focus will shift towards examining the main actors in the globalization process, namely the powerful set of rich countries known as the G8 and the most influential emerging economies referred to as the BRICS. [...] The divergent net external positions of the G7 and the BRICS9 underscore the varying dynamics and economic realities across the major countries of the world. [...] In the latest periods the net income transfers from the poorest to the richest that are due to a privileged return differential amounts to 1% of the richest GDP and around 2-3% of the bottom 80’s GDP.