During their financial crisis of 1997-98, Asian countries learned significant lessons, often at the behest of international creditors such as the United States. And they were able to productively utilize them, and thus escape the worst effects of the 2008-10 global crisis. The nine papers presented in this work arrive at three major lessons: 1) Countries should establish long term "economic robustness" through policies such as limiting currency mismatch on debt, accumulating sufficient foreign exchange reserves, and preventing excessive domestic credit creation. 2) Countries should leave room for stabilization policies, such as aggressive monetary easing combined with rapid tough recapitalization (or even the closure of damaged banks). 3) Countries should strive for the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves within a region, or even globally, in order to provide for self-insurance in the case of crisis. As chapter five, Policy Advice and Actions during the Asian and Global Financial Crises, points out however, the United States refused to follow the second lesson and force insolvent financial institutions to undergo restructuring. They thus established the reality of banks "too big to fail." This collection of papers is appropriate for professional economists in public policy or academia. Annotation ©2014 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less