3/21/2000
"[T]here is no simple, formulaic explanation for East Asia's astounding rise and no one set of villains responsible for the tragedy that followed," write the authors in this clear-eyed examination of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s. Drawing on hundreds of interviews they conducted for such publications as Business Week, the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Korea Herald, Clifford and Engardio discuss the perspectives of industrialists and government leaders as well as those of workers and farmers whose lives were shaped indelibly by forces beyond their control. The book focuses primarily on five crisis centers: South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong.