2) The U.S. dollar is still used as a de facto world reserve currency. Part of that new USD can be absorbed by other countries.
..It not only
can be absorbed, in many cases, it
must be absorbed - like for example in China, where Fed's QE operations resulted in "imported inflation" - like you said, loads of these freshly printed $$$ made their way to be invested in China/import & consume their stuff. There, The People Bank of China maintains a peg to the dollar - i.e., when more dollas arrive at their door, they must print more yuans, to maintain the peg - their Yuan reserves can not magically match increased supply of dollas, without creating some Yuans. They are not very happy with that, as you could guess - that Fed has effectively exported the inflation mostly to China, and other BRICs
Some goes for other currencies - when dollar looses its purchasing power, due to printing, their respective countries are gretting less competitive on international markets (cuz relatively to dollar-denominated stuff, their stuff starts to be expensive - not because efficiency/productivity increased in the US, but merely, because dollas are cheaper to buy). So they must follow suit, to maintain their exports, and cheapen their currencies.
It is not only because $ is a global reserve currency, it is also, because of the sheer size of US economy - if it was another Zimbabwe, it would be ignored by other international players, and let simply hiperinflate it's economy into oblivion, alone - cuz it couldn't influence their exports in any significant way. But it is US, capable and eager to eat as big a piece of the international exports, as possible - so cheapening currencies in the race to the bottom, is what everybody does (China, Japan, EU, Brasil.... others will join, if not joined already). Thus you need METALS, man
"Currency Wars" by J.G. Rickards details it all, it is quite a reading, have been mentioned here couple of times - recommended read!