he US, of course, is an importer, not an exporter.

Bingo.  We're even a food importer now (perhaps the most disgusting joke I've ever heard).  We've stripped our ability to produce anything other than paper and electrons down to effectively nothing, so of course we want hard money so we can buy what everyone else is selling.  Of course, that hard money policy also means there is no domestic growth, the huge private debt gets farther out of control every month, and wealth continues to transfer to the rentier class by the freighter-load.  The US is charging headlong into the 14th Century.  All we need is a good, old-fashioned plague.