Political support for Argentina's currency board rested on distributing the early gains from ending hyper-inflation and the spending made possible with access to external credit. When these gains were exhausted and external shocks left the peso overvalued, neither Argentina's political system...

The paper lays out an analytical framework for understanding crises in emerging markets based on examination of stock variables in the aggregate balance sheet of a country and the balance sheets of its main sectors (assets and liabilities). It focuses on the risks created by maturity, currency,...

The analysis of currency and maturity mismatches in sectoral balance sheets has increasingly become a regular element in the IMF’s tool kit for surveillance in emerging market countries. This paper describes this so-called balance sheet approach and shows how it can be applied to detect...

Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Why Crisis Resolution? -- Purging Unhelpful Myths -- Closing the Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality -- Agenda for Reform -- Structure of the Book -- Chapter 2 New Nature of Emerging-Market Crises -- Sources of...