When the financial firestorm swept through Asia in 1997, many economists scrambled to put together a coherent explanation of such a crisis. Early responses focused on economic and currency issues but these were more likely to be symptoms of the crisis and not causes. Soon after, it became apparent that the very essence of the crisis was of a financial, capital flow and banking nature. Further investigation revealed the crucial role played by foreign money, loose lending practices by banks and unhedged US-dollar-denominated debt interacting to generate a huge asset price bubble. The twin...