That's the demand side of the story. Meltdown captures the true flavour of the 1990s boom by looking at both sides of the story. The story of how American companies sidestepped concerns about U.S. laws forbidding bribes overseas by giving free stock in joint ventures to Suharto's children and cronies is enlightening. In Meltdown, former officials, now looking back on the days when the Clinton administration decided U.S. companies were missing out on Indonesian and other Asian deals and must get into the game, sound sheepish recalling those days. The follies of foreign bankers and fund managers also get a full airing.
Meltdown provides plenty of examples of Asia's own management and investment follies.
The authors reach back into their notebooks and clippings files and serve up several classic tales from the boom years. Granite Industries, a tiny Malaysian company, supposedly had a franchise to run a gambling concession in northern China. Finance One, a Thai finance company, undercut the going rate on consumer loans so aggressively that Citibank pulled back from the sector. Meltdown is especially good on Korea, where both authors were based earlier in their careers. A long with failing to adequately explore how the crisis will change Asia, both books miss the boat on Japan.