Collapsing credit markets have been blamed for the depth and persistence of the Great Depression in the United States. Could similar mechanisms have played a role in ending the East Asian economic miracle - and in creating fragility in global financial markets? After a brief account of the...

The evidence of the East Asian crisis is now in, and does indeed point to the conclusion that weaknesses in the financial systems and free capital mobility played a central role in propagating and deepening the crisis. All the crisis countries had essentially opened themselves to uncontrolled...