Britain also has a huge subrime problem, which would fit with your hypothesis. The real estate bubble has basically been global though.

As we are only (IMO) at the very beginning of a credit crunch, the effects have not yet been felt in the real economy. The fear that can cause an almost instant reaction in the financial markets takes longer to affect the real economy. The decision to sell a financial asset is quicker than the decision to downsize a company, to consolidate a business (rather than expand), to postpone an acquisition etc. I expect to see the effects on the real economy from this fall, at which point I would agree with you that recriminations from Europe and Asia are highly likely.