The article examines reasons for global current account imbalances, focusing on the US deficit and Asian surpluses. By analyzing data from 61 countries, the researchers found that traditional factors like income and growth rates couldn't explain these imbalances. However, including financial crises in the model helped explain Asia's surplus since 1997. Strong growth and good institutions in the US attracted Asian investments, leading to the US deficit. Despite this, the model still couldn't predict the large US deficit accurately.