And it was the start of what became known as the Asian currency crisis in 1997-98.

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Mr. Sokol entered Mr. Buffett's world when MidAmerican shares tumbled after several geothermal projects in Indonesia were delayed amid the Asian currency crisis.

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"There are the questions of the impact of the Asian currency crisis on China and the effectiveness of the Japanese fiscal stimulus, " says Philippine Central Bank Governor Gabriel Singson.

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Two years after the Asian currency crisis abruptly slammed booming economies into reverse and threatened a global recession, there has been much talk about reforming the international financial architecture, but less action.

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Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad appeared to get away with a form of it during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s when he divorced his currency from the capital markets. ("Hot money" is a particular bane of contemporary go-it-aloners.) Now Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra is getting credited, even in sophisticated circles, with galvanizing his country's recovery through internal demand.

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The debt of Asian economies is also now partly in their own currency, which would fall in a crisis, taking some of the strain.

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Putting the debt in U.S. dollars and possibly yen is smart and hedging the debt will limit currency fluctuations (note that un-hedged debt burnt many Thai corporates during the Asian crisis).

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And the local currency's 18% depreciation against the U.S. dollar since the onset of the Asian financial crisis has brought costs way down.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch