From Asian to Global Financial Crisis
An Asian Regulator's View of Unfettered Finance in the 1990s and 2000s

This is a unique insider account of the new world of unfettered finance.

Andrew Sheng (Author)

9780521134156, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 May 2009

504 pages, 16 b/w illus. 62 tables
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.5 cm, 0.66 kg

'… clear and complete [analysis] … Sheng's perspective as an Asian regulator is especially welcome … his most valuable contribution is that he identifies some of the major barriers standing in the way of a sound financial system and points to future solutions.' Hu Shuli, Foreign Affairs

This is a unique insider account of the new world of unfettered finance. The author, an Asian regulator, examines how old mindsets, market fundamentalism, loose monetary policy, carry trade, lax supervision, greed, cronyism, and financial engineering caused both the Asian crisis of the late 1990s and the global crisis of 2008–9. This book shows how the Japanese zero interest rate policy to fight deflation helped create the carry trade that generated bubbles in Asia whose effects brought Asian economies down. The study's main purpose is to demonstrate that global finance is so interlinked and interactive that our current tools and institutional structure to deal with critical episodes are completely outdated. The book explains how current financial policies and regulation failed to deal with a global bubble and makes recommendations on what must change.

Introduction
1. Things fall apart
2. Japan and the Asian crisis
3. The beam in our eyes
4. Banking: the weakest link
5. Washington consensus and the IMF
6. Thailand: the karma of globalization
7. South Korea: strong body, weak heart
8. Malaysia: the country that went her own way
9. Indonesia: from economic to political crisis
10. Hong Kong: unusual times need unusual action
11. China: rise of the dragon
12. From crisis to integration
13. The new world of financial engineering
14. What's wrong with financial regulation?
15. The global financial meltdown
16. A crisis of governance
Appendices: From Asian to global crisis: chronology of notable events
Abbreviations and acronyms.

Subject Areas: Public finance [KFFD], Finance [KFF], Finance & accounting [KF], Economics [KC], Asian history [HBJF]