Among U.S. exports, TV content is dwarfed by... liquified natural gas?
From WSJ, a fun datapoint hidden inside an otherwise disturbing column on Iran
An eye-popping factoid here from my old Wall Street Journal colleague Greg Ip's latest column about the current global oil shock. Added emphasis is mine:
The U.S. became an energy superpower through serendipity and policy. The shale revolution vastly increased domestic oil and gas production, while federal and state policy and the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities made that output available to the world.
In the process, oil and gas became key contributors to U.S. economic growth and prestige. The U.S. earns more from exports of LNG than of corn and soybeans, and twice as much as it does on movie and TV content, S&P Global reports.
The upshot to America's oil independence is that its incentives have shifted in the Middle East, including in regard to the current mess in the Strait of Hormuz. Greg's column, which I highly recommend reading in full, explains the situation in excellent detail. But for the sake of a TL;DR version, let it suffice we're no longer living in the same world as the famous 1970s oil embargo or even George H.W. Bush's first Gulf War.
Essentially, Greg's column describes a scenario in which the U.S. is becoming a force for instability in global security and economics, whereas it used to try to promote the opposite. Granted, our actual results were often mixed. But stability was the stated intent, at least.
Not anymore. Buckle up.