December 01, 2007
a free e-book with a chapter by Mark Weisbrot
The Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 is now seen as one of the most significant economic events in recent world history. The crisis began in early July 1997, when the Thai baht was floated, and spread into a virulent contagion—leaping from Thailand to South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. It led to severe currency depreciations and an economic recession that threatened to erase decades of economic progress for the affected East and Southeast Asian nations. The sequence of events triggered a self-reinforcing spiral of panic, which