They could do that more easily if consumers in China and the other surplus countries were willing to buy more imported goods.

BBC: Currency war's key battlegrounds

How far a cyclical slowdown in investment translates into a rise in China's national saving surplus also depends on how consumers react.

ECONOMIST: The frugal giant

If America fails to export its surplus gas supplies, Asian consumers face very little chance of getting gas markets working on the basis of gas fundamentals, rather than oil indexation folly of old.

FORBES: Why China Will Stop U.S. Energy Independence

The world's surplus economies have been propelled by American consumers' appetite for everything from cars and electronics to furniture and clothing.

ECONOMIST: America's economy

And a greater consumer surplus is, by definition, some of that increase in wealth going to the consumers, not the owners of the means of production.

FORBES: Robots And Jobs: Is Paul Krugman Really Saying This?

Another way of looking at China's current-account surplus with America is that in exchange for selling lots of cheap shoes and fridges to American consumers, China receives little by way of return except IOUs in the form of American Treasuries.

ECONOMIST: Will China float the yuan, revalue it up a bit, or neither?