Thirdly, the countries became overly exposed to foreign capital flows, and vulnerable balance of payments positions developed that could not be managed once confidence faded. Large current account deficits were no longer covered by total capital inflows, and the withdrawal of short-term funds from some countries exacerbated the situation.
Unless we understand this correctly, we may end up with unintended consequences of having killed the messenger as the first way to deal with the crisis. There is a broad consensus that, if these global imbalances persist for a long time, the situation will develop into a global crisis or at least provide fertile soil for it.