Great article, Lyn! Thanks for the detailed explanations. I've been wondering about your position on the reserve currency status and think I am missing still one piece of the puzzle.

The world needs dollars - ok.

But why can this demand not be filled by printing dollars and buying gold or other assets instead of buying depreciating goods and services? It could counterbalance dollar overvaluation and keep the industrial base competitive.

From my perspective, the root cause of the socio-economic problems is not the trade deficit but the fractional reserve banking and the Cantillon effect, i.e. who profits from the newly created dollars.