ABSTRACT

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.