In the nineties, the number of currency crises has been high, both in the industrial world and among emerging countries. An important characteristic of many of these crises is that they started in one country but very soon affected others as well. Currency crises seemed to be contagious. In this...

Over the course of the past few years, too much credit has been made available worldwide, due to financial innovation, overly optimistic expectations and loophole-ridden regulation. Regulatory supervisors have failed because they were unable to prevent this situation. Things took a bad turn...