Financial crisis in East Asia: "The end of the Asian model"?

Abstract As the East Asian economic crisis has unfolded over the last six months, it has become common place for informed Western commentators to suggest that the crisis has essentially been caused by the specific model of capitalism -- the so-called “Asian model”-- that these countries had been following. It is admitted that this model had been quite successful in delivering fast economic growth for some time, but it is suggested that it was ultimately doomed to failure because of its incompatibility with free markets.