Investing in the world's best balance sheets

FORTUNE -- At the G20 summit in Toronto last month, the leaders of world's largest economies embraced a brave new theme: Halting the alarming, potentially ruinous growth in already mountainous sovereign debt.

Now that the spotlight is shifting to the dangers of big deficits and excessive leverage, many politicians, pundits, and even investors, are mostly ignoring the most remarkable feature of the global debt picture. It's almost exclusively the developed countries that are guilty of excessive borrowing.

Amazingly, the emerging nations, from China to Russia to Brazil to Indonesia, are either virtually debt-free or boast far healthier balance sheets than their giant trading partners. These countries stand as the new models of fiscal prudence. (more)