ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the origins and management of the recent financial crises in East Asia and Latin America. 1 I will address three issues relating to the East Asian currency and financial crises of 1997–98 and the later financial turmoil and debt default of Argentina in 2001, which threatened the financial stability of Brazil. 2 The first section looks at the similarities between the two sets of economies—the East Asian and the Latin American—in the run-up to their financial upheavals, and the second section analyzes how the two groups differed in their potential for minimizing the impact of the respective crises. This is followed by a description of the assistance provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the chapter concludes by recommending that the Fund learn from its bailout experience and depart from its standard recipes of fiscal and monetary discipline, to better resolve currency and financial crises in emerging market economies.
