Financial Hypocrisy

Economists’ Voice December, 2007 © The Berkeley Electronic Press / Project Syndicate T his year marks the tenth anniversary of the East Asia crisis, which began in Thailand on July 2, 1997, and spread to Indonesia in October and to Korea in December. Eventually, it became a global financial crisis, embroiling Russia and Latin American countries, such as Brazil, and unleashing forces that played out over the ensuing years: Argentina in 2001 may be counted as among its victims. What is remarkable to me today is that there are those who favor easy money to bail Wall Street out of the current credit crunch to dam the problems that could otherwise flow downstream. Is this learning or hypocrisy? I fear hypocrisy.