What kept Britain afloat at this juncture, financially speaking, were precisely those "invisible" earnings on the capital account from sterling assets abroad that made up for the curtailment of exports and the reduction in domestic consumption wrought by austerity. The choice to save sterling was, then, not simply the City against everyone else. Banking was making a buck because sterling was not devalued, and that was (almost) balancing the books. Unfortunately, the sudden stop in capital flows from the United States in 1929 and the deleterious effects this had on Germany, Austria, and the other central European countries brought this happy state of affairs to an end. Britain now needed to import capital to cover its deficit, which was hard to do since it was all flowing to the United States instead.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 515