“Recent large increases in foreign official holdings indicate that foreign private investors see fewer attractive places to put their money in the American economy. They could presage a significant fall in the price of American assets, stocks (witness the recent drops in American stock markets) and bonds and real estateand all, and a hard landing for a world economy still floating on the crest of cheap credit.” — Martin Mayer, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution and author of The Fate of the Dollar (New York Times op-ed)