(FORTUNE Magazine) – What happens when you freeze Kuwaiti assets to keep them away from Iraq's Saddam Hussein? First you have to find them. The U.S. Treasury admits that will take weeks. Estimates of the wealth run over $100 billion spread among more than 20 countries. The assets range from conventional stock investments in British Petroleum (9.9%), Daimler-Benz (14%), and the Spanish industrial holding company Grupo Torras (72.5%) to the more exotic, such as stakes in the world's largest fish-and-chip restaurant, Harry Ramsden's, and, reportedly, the Arizona resort that was part of S&L magnate Charles Keating's empire. International companies of which Kuwait owns a chunk will keep doing business as usual. But second-phase construction of the sprawling London Bridge City office complex that the Kuwaitis are building may be delayed. Kuwait's more than 6,500 Q8 gas stations in Europe keep pumping, though their crude may soon come from Saudi Arabia instead of from home. The longer the freeze, the greater the fallout. Liquidity will suffer. The world savings rate will contract somewhat because Kuwait's oil revenues will be lost. That will drive global interest rates up slightly. The Third World will get pinched. Kuwait lent $285 million last year to poor countries -- and not just Arab ones. Companies selling to the Kuwaitis may sue their banks for breach of contract if they don't get paid. The banks may also find themselves the targets of suits by investors who want their money back. Says Ronald Leeds, head of Jesup Josephthal Asset Management, which manages Middle Eastern money: ''We aren't talking about a banana republic. Kuwait is a major financial force in the world.''