[Rockingham]

For the US, the longstanding current account deficit involves a lot more than the article suggests. With the dollar as the world's reserve currency, the US gets the benefit of seigniorage, being able to print dollars and issue debt that the world economy absorbs as transactional currency and backing for foreign currencies. In addition, countries that depend on export to the US like China and Japan buy and hold dollars in order to keep their own currencies from rising and cutting into exports.

[dennisw]

Correct!!!!! The lower trade deficit (described in this article) helps the USD retain reserve currency status. So all in all this is good news. We get to buy more cheap stuff from China for a while. This delays Russia and China being able to sabotage the US dollar out of reserve currency status

Its not that we are exporting so much oil/gas. Its that we don’t need to import as much due to fracking, Baaken shale etc