For nearly three centuries the spectacular rise and fall of the South Sea Company has gripped the public imagination as the most graphic warning to investors of the dangers of unbridled speculation. Yet history repeats itself and the same elemental forces that drove up the price of South Sea...

The trend towards globalisation of financial markets has been given further impetus in recent years by the dismantling of exchange controls, a dramatic rise in cross-border investment flows and increased access to domesticbanking markets by foreign institutions. At the same time, banking can no...