Meltdown: Asia's Spectacular Boom and Devastating Bust [Hardcover]

Mark L. Clifford (Author), Pete Engardio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1999

Analyzes Asia's financial meltdown and its impact on the world, tracing the boom-bust cycle of the Asian economies, critiquing the continent's development strategies and speculating on the future of the region.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The recent crumbling of Asian economies has captivated American financial experts, if not American consumers. In the modern world of interconnected economic systems and global business, this captivation is more than mere curiosity; the Asian economy directly affects economic conditions in this country. Clifford (Troubled Tiger) and Engardio, Business Week journalists with significant experience in Asia, set out to explain the region's recent fall in fortunes. In a methodical progression of steps, specific countries, from Korea to Hong Kong to Malaysia, are put under their analytical scope. They outline recent history since WWII, from political turmoil ("Asia showed an extraordinary ability to use crisis as a catalyst for needed change") to the growing development of infrastructure and real estate and the growth of heavy industry and export markets, all the conditions that made the region ripe for rapid growth. Profiles of personalities, from dictators to creative industrialists, add a human face to the otherwise broad perspective. Eager interference and speculation from the outside world, hot to participate in the Asian miracle, were also constant spurs of too-rapid growth. Then came Thailand's devaluation of the baht, its official currency. From there, a comeuppance spread throughout the Asian region, made weak by mismanagement, overbuilding and a host of other economic ills. The authors make candid observations about human error, flawed political structures, greed and international monetary policy. There are lessons to be learned and a hopeful message that some of the participants in the Asian debacle have, indeed, learned a lesson, even though the authors, at the end of this incisive and illuminating study, are not holding their breath. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The first half of this decade saw numerous books touting Asia's economic miracle and proclaiming the "Pacific century." Now the economic collapse that brought down Asian economies like dominoes has given rise to a new round of books trying to explain what happened. Within the past year, we have had The Asia Crisis, The Downsizing of Asia , Asia Meltdown, Miracle to Meltdown in Asia, The Trouble with Tigers, and Asia Falling? We see that meltdown is the metaphor of choice for more than one author. Clifford and Engardio are Business Week senior specialists, and they observed and reported firsthand many of the events they now describe. Like several of the authors of the other works, they acknowledge that Asia's inevitable rebound has already begun, and they attribute the meltdown as much to conditions created by authoritarian or totalitarian regimes as to strictly economic factors. But Clifford and Engardio also imbue their analysis with journalistic detail and headline drama, making their book more accessible than most of the others. David Rouse

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735201412
• ISBN-13: 978-0735201415
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,187,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.