There is an increasing need for a system of international lending of last resort (ILLR) to provide a safety net in the event of financial crises in vulnerable countries as financial globalization deepens and spreads. Multilateral progress to address liquidity and solvency crises has been patchy...

This paper examines some of the origins of the recent East Asian financial crisis. It is composed of three parts. The first considers the role of moral hazard in the crisis, specifically the influence of implicit and explicit government guarantees which may have contributed to excess borrowing...