At all events, the analyses produced by government and international institutions regularly pointed to the possibility that those imbalances might give rise to rapid and disorderly adjustments, with sudden realignments of the external value of the dollar and abrupt falls in US domestic demand, as the main threat to stable growth of the world economy.
In the end, the financial crisis was not provoked by a flight from the dollar but by the slump in the US housing market and the consequent depreciation of structured financial products. This initial spark found ideal tinder in the general vulnerability, and the crisis spread like wildfire, encountering no particular obstacles.