Wrong medicine for asia

The Wrong Medicine for Asia By JEFFREY D. SACHS CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In a matter of just a few months, the Asian economies went from being the darlings of the investment community to being virtual pariahs. There was a touch of the absurd in the unfolding drama, as international money managers harshly castigated the very same Asian governments they were praising just months before. The International Monetary Fund has just announced a second bailout package …

…moderate cut in foreign lending was needed; the panic was not. If the currency crisis is well managed, Asia will be able to resume its rapid economic growth. If it is managed with unthinking orthodoxy, the costs could be very high, for Asia and the rest of the world. Jeffrey D. Sachs is director of the Harvard Institute for International Development and an economic adviser to governments in Asia and other parts of the world.