Regarding the currency/account surplus chart, I agree it's interesting.  One thing that occurred to me, however, is that some of these countries, such as Korea might actually want their currency to weaken a bit.  In that case, one way might be to run a bit of a deficit.  While it may not be possible to devalue your way to prosperity, Korea and other countries in SE Asia now have very strong reserves, and they may see now as a time to dip into them a bit. 

The distinction between overall deficit and % of GDP is important, but I would say that the overall deficit becomes more of a concern when the absolute size is large.  A smaller country may be able to act irresponsibly, without resulting in the same amount of systemic risk that occurs when a large country, like the U.S. does so.  In that vein, I would say looking only at % of GDP tends to understate the problem in the U.S.  

In addition to that, besides running a deficit the U.S. is also facing a current financial crisis which is exacerbating all the problems.