Under current accounting rules, assets are disclosed so poorly that banks are allowed to keep mysterious exposures out of view.
Kevin Mountford, of Moneysupermarket.com, told Radio 5 live's consumer team: "There has always been a perception that the current account is a valuable asset because clearly then the banks have our transactional data.
Unlike the U.S., it has a large trade and current account surplus, and large overseas assets.
The legislation would make it easier for the Commerce Department to place duties on imports from countries that have "fundamentally undervalued" currencies — defined as "protracted, large-scale intervention" in foreign exchange markets; an undervaluation of at least 5 percent; persistent global current account surpluses; and "excessive" foreign asset reserves.
The balance of payments records two different kinds of transactions: cross-border payments for goods and services (ie, exports and imports), which are recorded in the "current account", and cross-border payments for assets.
So in theory we can finance this current account deficit for some time, by selling assets (if need be).
Instead, the yen's strength is a by-product of private sector recycling of the current account surplus and international purchases of Japanese assets.
Because of these problems we suggest estimating net foreign assets by capitalizing the net investment income and then estimating the current account from the changes in this stock of foreign assets.
For example, assuming a capital account balance of zero (thus no asset transfers available for financing), a current account deficit of £1 billion implies a financial account surplus (or net asset exports) of £1 billion.
Two of them are especially worrisome a monstrous current account gap and the Mother of all asset bubbles.
Because the balance of payments sums to zero, a current account surplus indicates a deficit in the asset accounts and vice versa.
