Customer Reviews

The Asian Currency Crisis

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As someone who is not an economist, I am in no position to rate Tan's arguments vis-a-vis the positions of other economists. However, as an introduction to the complexities of the 1998 meltdown in Asian economies, this book is first-rate. It is very well organized.

Dealing with the crisis chronologically, and country-by-country, Tan is able to illustrate patterns that span the whole event, and unique events within each country. He treats the responses of each country, and does not shirk from providing a sober and often scathing assessment of the attitudes and policy responses of individual countries. His political analyses are just as useful, since the implications of the event have so much to do with the political makeup of individual countries, and their political and financial institutions.

Market data is used extensively to support his claim. There is a tremendous and often overwhelming plethora of data. However, if one is just looking for an identification of major patterns and analyses, Tan illustrates this very clearly within his chapters.

This book is a great resource for someone who wants access to source data that is relevant to the Asian Meltdown, as well as just a broad introduction to the phenomena that helps a reader trying to understand such a significant event (or series of events).