ABSTRACT
Balance of payments figures have status as a primary economic indicator, called on by national policy analysts and international market speculators to signal how a nation is performing in the international economy. This chapter looks at the structure of balance of payments accounting as an expression of a nationalist conception of accumulation. The accounting system that is the balance of payments has two orders of problem: the accuracy of data, and the imposed nationalist classification system. The chapter argues that balance of payments categories give a particular, ideological construction of accumulation. The national aggregation found in balance of payments accounting provides the analytical framework for the constitution of a shared national experience of the international economy. Balance of payments categories demand that each individual and enterprise be allocated a nationality and a residence. The use of balance of payments data to understand the national expression of international accumulation must be questioned.
