ndy, You said;

“As a practical matter, if I choose to hoard money, I am saving. Depending on the central bank’s reaction function, I may be encouraging someone else to dissave by reducing their income, but for my part, I am saving, even if I don’t cause any capital goods to be produced. It’s meaningful to say that countries with trade surpluses are saving, even if they aren’t causing any capital goods to be produced.”

I’m going to quibble with both points. Global saving equals global investment. Everyone agrees that national saving differs from national investment by the CA. So no issues there. The saving of cash example is more complex issue. Cash can be viewed as government debt, or as a sort of capital good, like paper gold. Something that provides transactions services.

If it’s government debt then any extra cash you hold means equal dissaving by the government. National saving is unchanged. If it’s capital and your saving of cash causes the real quantity of cash to go up, then it is saving, but investment has also occurred. That interpretation makes most people queasy, but I throw it out there for completeness.