The papers in this volume were presented at three invited sessions at the annual meetings of the Western Economic Association in San Diego, California on July 8-10, 1999. The comments by delegates were also presented at that time and are included in the volume. The theme of the sessions was "Bank Problems: A Global Perspective." As has been well documented in previous volumes in this series, serious banking problems have plagued the large majority of countries globally be they industrial, emerging or transition economies. The problems arose because of both market failures and regulatory or...