This article reviews and interprets the recent currency crises in Korea and Thailand. The authors argue that a prime causes of the crises were large, unfunded government guarantees to railing financial sectors.

The U.S. current account deficit has grown steadily since 1991, hitting record levels of 3.6 percent of GDP in 1999 and 4.4 percent in 2000. In recent years, the growing deficits have increasingly raised concerns. For instance, most economists who took part in a recent Wall Street Journal...

According to conventional wisdom, trade balances reflect a country's competitive strength-the lower the trade deficit, the stronger the country's industries and the higher its rate of economic growth. In this article, David Gould and Roy Ruffin review the history of the conventional wisdom and...