Introduction The biggest financial news story of 1997 and 1998 was the series of crises that hit the stock, currency and banking markets in “emerging economies.” The “crisis of 1997-8” began in Thailand in May 1997, and through the summer and fall swept through some of the most important and stable economies of Southeast Asia-Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore. In late October, the crisis reached Brazil and Russia, and by early December it reached South Korea. In January 1998, a new round of instability shook the South Korean and Indonesian financial markets. In its scope and depth, the crisis of 1997-8 proved to be far more disruptive and less tractable than its December 1994 Mexican predecessor.