"There are concerns that a $75bn (£37bn) rescue operation put together by US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to stabilise the sub-prime market is intended to mask the scale of the crisis. "This rescue has back-fired," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas. "The central banks don't want anything to do with it. There is a fear that the big four US banks are trying to hide their debts," he said...

Outgoing IMF chief Rodrigo Rato warned yesterday that the adjustment may be brutal: "An abrupt fall in the dollar could either be triggered by, or itself trigger, a loss of confidence in dollar assets."

When you are running the biggest confidence game in the world, a "loss of confidence" is the last thing you want to see -- before you skip town with the sucker's money.

See: Telegraph article (2007-10)