This is another one of our fundamental economic disagreements--we have two or three, I don't think many more than that.  I expect the US to run current account deficits for the coming years, particularly as the baby boomers retire.  I think today's situation is a little unnatural due to the yuan being artificially devalued through central control in China, but that will likely be corrected over the next three years or so.  but there will still be a current account deficit.  

Americans will sell their investments to cover their retirement and other spending.  American companies, many of whom already receive half or more of their profits from doing business outside the US, will be bought be "foreign" investors, and thus have much more foreign ownership.  Treasury bills will also continue to be bought by foreign investors, as long as the government has a plan to manage the annual deficit--which it does and it's laid out in the long term US budget projections--, the plan seems doable, and the plan is basically achieved over the years.  Investors will simply not ignore the fact that the debt/GDP ratio for EU members is significantly higher than the US.  If the US falters on its long term budget projections---well, that's a different story, and investors, such as me, will move more and more of our investments to the EU and Asia.  But my view today is that capital account surpluses in the US will have no problem covering current account deficits--and what's wrong if the US simply maintains a ratio of Debt/GDP that is lower than the EU (and that means a lot more borrowing due to GDP growth), and what's wrong if these American companies that are so global anyway are owned more and more by people outside of America.  This trend will not go on forever, but it will for quite a while.