ABSTRACT
The good old days probably weren’t better, but they were certainly calmer. It is true that the recovery from the international financial crisis that began in Thailand in July 1997 was faster than most observers (myself very much included) had imagined possible. The crisis, however, was terrifying while it lasted, and the after effects are still being felt. Indeed, while South Korea and Malaysia have staged rapid recoveries, the recovery of Thailand itself has been more hesitant. And Indonesia, whose population is larger than that of all the other Asian crisis countries combined, seems to have suffered a political and economic setback whose end is not yet in sight.
