The present current-account global imbalances are usually described as pitting the United States against East Asia, with Europe an innocent bystander who could be hit if things go wrong. The rest of the world is largely ignored, presumably because its size in world trade is small relatively to the big three areas. Being small does not mean that the rest of the world would escape the adverse consequences of a disruptive unwinding of the imbalances, it means that there is little it can do to guard