Description
What ever happened to the Asian economic miracle?
How did nationalistic ego, indifference and greed throw Southeast Asia's equity and financial markets into turmoil? The equity and currency markets have suffered from the tremors of overheating economies which have been cunningly exploited by shrewd hedge-fund managers following the de facto devaluation of the Thai baht in July 1997.
While the region remains in a state of perilous turmoil and internecine political battles are being quietly and sometimes very openly waged, predictions of what is to come are mixed, and surprisingly being waged by economists far from the battleground where survival is the order of the day.
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's angry stance against currency speculators-notably mega-trader George Soros whom he holds responsible for the attacks on the ringgit and other regional currencies-is played out against the backdrop of widening current-account deficits, the sharp slides in local currencies against the US dollar and bearish sentiments on the local bourses.
This book provides a comprehensive narrative, tracing the meltdown of Southeast Asian currencies, and the inevitable fallout that must ensue.