16
The Asian Crisis and its
International Repercussions
The world's stock markets have been unstable since late October
199 7. Those stocks that had generally registered major gains in
recent years have dropped in value. No clear tendency can as yet be
detected. The representatives of triumphant neo-liberalism -
governments, financiers, the heads of the World Bank, IMF and the
Bank of International Settlements, and stock market commentators
- are putting on a brave face but it is clear that they are worried.
Confidence in the future is the watchword, they say.
But where did this crisis come from? Did the IMF forecast it? Who
will pay for the damage that has been done?
CHECKMATE FOR ASIA'S FOUR 'DRAGONS'
In April 1997, a major economic and financial crisis broke out in
Southeast Asia. It began in Thailand in February 1997, spreading
from July onwards to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. These
four countries had not long before been cited by the IMF, the World
Bank and private banks as the models to emulate owing to their high
degree of openness to the world market, their low rate of inflation and
their high rates of growth. They were Asia's four 'dragons', engaged
in a race to catch up with the regions four 'tigers' (South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). Today, the very same institu
tions now criticise these countries for having given the state too
strong a role; they accuse the state of having allowed private financial
and industrial concerns to accumulate exaggerated levels of debt and
to speculate.