Gerhard Colm

Economics of Public Investment: A Reply

point of the particular economy, without invoking confusion. For, unlike monetary claims existing within a country, the claims of a given economy on foreign countries are a component of the real wealth of the respective economy, while foreign debts are a negative wealth component. This is why claims arising from exports, for example, must likewise be considered as real capital formation or investment (import debits = negative investment), and I believe that students of the saving-investment concept of economic dynamics have become quite accustomed to this terminology. Surely, in the end, real capital or wealth can consist only of material goods, and indeed for the world as a whole claims and debts from country to country cancel out, and what is left are the material things for which they stand (cf. p. 38, n. 4).