I don&#x27;t find it confusing, I find that the man is confused about economics. I already listed the main points in my post above, although admittedly this stuff is clearer when spelled out over 100 pages of a textbook with a bunch of examples, clear formulae, and discussion of competing theories versus a post on Hacker News[1]<p>MMT agrees with most of the points Wilson and Riley make (ie. that exporting is a cost and importing is a benefit, referred to in the article as &quot;Seignorage&quot;, and lower transaction costs) but they&#x27;re incorrect on the notion that one of the advantages of being the reserve currency is the ability to &quot;run up huge amounts of debt at low interest rates&quot; -- the US doesn&#x27;t need to borrow US dollars, it creates US dollars. If they&#x27;re referring to the advantage in being that the US private sector has been able to borrow US dollars from foreigners cheaply, then maybe that&#x27;s a benefit I&#x27;m not really sure but they could just as easily have gotten that money from other banks with accounts at the Fed anyway (so long as there was sufficient cash reserves to satisfy the demand for dollars!)<p>[1]<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Modern-Money-Theory-Macroeconomics-Sovereign&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0230368891" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Modern-Money-Theory-Macroeconomics-Sov...</a>