End of the Miracle: Exploring the Asian Financial Crisis

Economists and political scientists spent considerable energy in the past decade explaining the Asian economic miracle—the ability of so many Asian countries to sustain high growth and industrial transformation. Until last year few gave much thought to problems or distortions in Asia’s development process.

Last summer, the problems began bursting to the fore, starting with Thailand and reverberating across large portions of Asia. Now the need is to explain what went wrong and to analyze the many possible implications of the Asian financial crisis. This issue of the Brookings Review brings together a wide range of views on the causes, implications, and possible cures for Asian problems.