In the context of globalization, global financial crisis reflected the evolution of the relation global finance - global economy. The paper focuses on two issues. First, we review a part of the literature regarding the costs and benefits of financial globalization and the links between financial globalization, global imbalances and crises. Second, we discuss whether the financial globalization associated with global imbalances contributed to the 2008 global financial crisis. We conclude that global imbalances (GDP, current account, capital flows and international reserves) played a key role in determining the incidence and propagation of the global financial crisis both in advanced and developing economies. But they are still not resolved and so the risk to power a new global crisis remains high. Therefore economic and financial globalization has to redefine the links between international finance and global economy nowadays.