Serious Confusion on Currency and the Dollar at the NYT

The NYT had a seriously confused column by Lan Cao on US trade policy. The piece touts the dollar's role as the world's leading currency, highlighting the fact that most oil is traded in dollars.

In reality, the need for countries to get dollars to buy oil is trivial. If a country does not otherwise want to hold dollars, it can hold its assets in any major currency. Since there are massive currency markets in which trillions of dollars worth of currency change hands every day, it can sell wha...