International reserves held by emerging and other developing countries totalled more than $7 trillion at the end of 2011, after adding another $1 trillion in a single year (United Nations, 2012). These buffers indeed have helped many developing countries (but more so for some than others) to steer with some resilience through the 2008-2009 global crisis. At the same time, however, the reserve accumulation by developing countries has been part and parcel of the problem of the global imbalances and helped finance widening deficits in the developed world, the United States in particular.