(FORTUNE Magazine) – Investors have more choices than ever in a world of mounting demand for money and increasingly efficient flows of information and capital. So when the U.S. economy tanked, foreigners had no trouble finding better places to put their funds. Some even disinvested, for example, by drawing more dividends out of American operations than they earned. Though the swelling U.S. debt became a political issue in America, it didn't seem to bother foreigners; their ^ holdings of Treasury securities remained fairly constant at 12%. Conventional wisdom holds that the global thirst for capital will drive up interest rates once growth in the industrial world revives. Perhaps, but contrarians argue that any shortage will simply direct money into the most efficient investments. Brookings Institution senior fellow Barry P. Bosworth maintains that many of the fast-growing countries will draw on high domestic saving rates -- including capital making a round trip from its flight into Swiss banks in the no-growth years. He also believes that the industrial economies will not grow as fast as in the past and will not need as much capital.

THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST The economic slowdown trimmed investment in new equipment and plants for much of the industrial world. But the emerging economies of Asia and Latin America have too much momentum these days to be derailed by the malaise of the big countries.

THE SAVINGS SHORTFALL These seven major countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) supply much of the world's investment capital. But only Japan and Germany have lifted their national saving rates over the past decade. Rising consumption and swelling government deficits knocked rates down in the others.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: SOURCE: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE CAPTION: HOW THE CAPITAL FLOWS DIRECT FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN THE U.S., 1991 DIRECT INVESTMENT ABROAD BY THE U.S., 1991

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: WEFA GROUP CAPTION: GROWTH IN REAL FIXED INVESTMENT FIXED INVESTMENT AS A PERCENT OF GDP

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: SOURCE: OECD CAPTION: NATIONAL SAVING RATES

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: SOURCE: U.S. TREASURY DEPARTMENT WHO FINANCES U.S. GOVERNMENT DEBT