preview

Asian Crisis Essay examples

Decent Essays

The financial crisis that erupted in Asia in mid-1997 has led to sharp declines in the currencies, stock markets, and other asset prices of a number of Asian countries. It is hard to understand what these declines will actually do to the world market. This decline is expected to halve the rate of world growth in 1998 from the four percent that was projected pre-crisis to an estimated outcome of about 2 percent. The countries that are included in the East Asian crisis, known as
"Tiger" economies, are Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. For these countries to participate effectively in the exchange of goods, services, and assets, an international monetary system is needed …show more content…

On the whole, this process of globalization has been an enormously positive development. It has opened new markets, enhanced competition, spurred innovation, and provided new opportunities for workers, farmers, and businesses around the world. For example more than 40 percent of US exports today are absorbed by developing countries, an extraordinary increase over past export patterns, and the jobs associated with these exports are high-paying, good jobs. The increasing productivity of our trading partners has helped keep inflation down and improve standards of living in the United States. And outside the US, probably hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty around the world by the economic growth and trade over the past twenty or thirty years. Effects of the Global Economy In this new global economy, countries are more tightly linked than ever before to each other's fates. A decade ago, a collapse in the currency of a small, distant country like Thailand would barely have rated a mention in the typical American newspaper. Last year, however, that currency crash triggered a crisis in other East Asian countries that has dominated news coverage in a way that no other foreign financial crisis has ever done before in this country. The reason for the change is that we now have more at stake than ever before in the economic performance of these countries. Not only are they major customers for our products; the rich countries and

Get Access