In today's New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman quotes Robert
Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, as saying "In
the 1990's, Japan's and China's excess savings were financing our
private sector investment, because the government was in surplus," ...
"Now, with these looming deficits, China and Japan are being asked to
finance our government's actual operations."

Am I crazy, or does it sounds like the Goldman Sachs gentleman is
saying that the government surplus in the 1990s caused a deficit in
the private sector, and that the US needed China and Japan's help to
finance the private sector?