ABSTRACT
In the wake of the Mexican, Asian and Russian currency turmoil, the subject of financial crisis has come to the forefront of academic discussion and policy formulation. While the phenomenon of global financial crises of the 1990s needs no introduction, the phenomenology of these crises does admit of various interpretations. The financial crisis which struck many countries around the globe in the last few years of the twentieth century would remain important in many respects. First, these were the last crises of the twentieth century and the first ones in the present century. Second, the impact of these crises has been severe for many countries, and third, these were mostly unprecedented and uncertain. In many of the countries, particularly in the Southeast Asian countries, the crises occurred in spite of apparently strong macroeconomic fundamentals. These economies, which were miracle economies (World Bank, 1993), experienced unexpected debacles in the 1990s.
