One is the rise of the debit card, which takes payment directly from the customer's current account and is less lucrative for banks than credit, because transaction fees are lower and there is no opportunity to earn interest.

ECONOMIST: Credit cards in America: Knocked off balance | The

That transaction, though, does not show up in traditional current-account statistics.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

They do not log any information except the current account balance and the bitcoins from many TORwallets can be mixed instantly to a single address in a single transaction to make them extremely difficult to trace.

FORBES: TORwallet Sparks Trust Without Jurisdiction Debate

Thanks to the dollar's stability, liquidity and low transaction costs, the U.S. has an edge in attracting capital inflows to finance the current account deficit.

FORBES: No Greenback Crash