"Asian financial crisis" started in July 1997, when speculators and Thai residents were trying to sell the baht and buy U.S. dollars, because the fixed exchange rate of the baht were pegged artificially high to the U.S. dollar. This caused the baht out of the country, and the Thai government ran out of foreign exchange reserves. As a result, capital became scarcer, the baht devalued by 20% as measured against the U.S. dollar, and interest rates on borrowed money sharply increased. Productivity in Thailand decreased, unemployment became high, and businesses went bankrupt causing the worst recession in Thai postwar history. Once the crisis hit Thailand, the prices for exports fell causing other Asian currencies to be devalued as well. In particular, Indonesia's currency, the rupiah came under attack and had to be devalued by about 90% over the period of just a few months. The economy as a whole in Indonesia has been even more se

ncerns with past and future South Korean government lending practices to its steel companies. Russo asked the committee to add the following conditions to the IMF "Reform and Authorization Act of 1998."

Zandi, Mark (1997. December 15). The Regional Economic Impact of the Asian Currency Crisis. Retrieved March 2, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.dismal.com/thoughts/asia_impact.stm

The lower prices of steel without tariffs and quotas will help the U.S. more because they are promoting free trade and competition. If Americans buy steel from foreigners because it is less expensive we will benefit from this two-fold. Americans spending dollars abroad on steel will result in foreigners buying other goods with this money from other U.S. industries. This will help create new jobs and build newer factories for these industries to be more productive. The U.S. economy as a whole will benefit from lower steel prices and higher productivity.

The reasons why Asian governments maintained the artificially high fixed exchange rates for so long, was because they wanted to attract short-term capital from abroad to finance rapid development in these countries. Rules and regulations on financial institutions were very weak and did not protect the banks' exposure to excessive risk by extending loans to unhealthy enterprises. The vulnerability of the financial systems resulted in an outflow of short-term capital from the system, leading to rapid selling of currency and stocks by investors.

Becker, George (1999. March 4). Steelworkers' President Urges Passage of Bi-Partisan Steel Recovery Act Before Easter. USWA News. Retrieved February 26, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.uswa.org/press/NRPsteelbill.html

Some common words found in the essay are:
Financial Crisis, Americans Tariffs, Productivity Thailand, Wide Web, Russia Brazil, Steel Industry, South Korea, Retrieved February, Alaska Asian, Steel Caucus, steel industry, asian financial, asian financial crisis, financial crisis, miyao 1999, miyao 1999 miyao, 1999 miyao 1999, 1999 miyao, 2000 world wide, world wide, 1998 february, world wide web, wide web, short run, 2000 world,
Approximate Word count = 2385
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)