Preface

Summary

This book grew out of a series of articles I (the principal author) wrote and public lectures I gave in various parts of Asia in 2007 and 2008. As a matter of fact, when I gave one of my first lectures on the financial crisis in October 2007 at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), it did not attract much attention. As the Director General of the Private Sector Operations Department of the ADB was reported to have said, it (the crisis) was just a tempest in a teacup. In a later lecture I gave to the Bankers Association in Singapore in January 2008, I ended the talk by saying it was a perfect financial storm, and I was questioned about the validity of such a conclusion at that time. At the end of 2008, when the crisis was still raging, I was invited to speak at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. After one of the talks, I was encouraged by the Director and the staff of the Institute to write a book on this subject. One of my good friends and tennis partner, Professor Lim Chin of the National University of Singapore, attended one of my lectures. During the height of the financial panic, he had separately written several articles and edited a book on the crisis. His offer to work with me on this book led to a fruitful partnership in this intellectual journey that has benefitted both of us.

In August 2007, a few weeks after the collapse of two hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns, reportedly the start of the great financial crisis, I started my research fellowship with the Asian Public Intellectuals (API) Programme of the Nippon Foundation. The topic of my research was the Asian financial crisis. I had spent twenty years as a banker in various international banks (Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan Chase), Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and the Asian Development Bank). And prior to that I had done research on and taught political economy and sociology in various universities in the United States and Malaysia. When I left the field of banking and finance in 2007, I wanted to spend time to reflect and write on my experience in this area.