Mainstream Responses to the East Asian Crisis

The 1997–98 economic collapse of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea came as a shock not only to government and business leaders, but also to development economists. Even after the assault on Asian currencies moved into full swing in mid-1997, the Asian Development Bank’s chief economist still predicted that “these economies should be growing again at a fair clip in the second half of 1998 and thereafter” (Gargan 1997, C15). The end of the year, however, found the economies of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea in a tailspin, with all relevant economic and social indicators in sharp decline (Woodall 1998, 5).