THE EAST ASIAN countries at the center of the recent crisis were for years admired as some of the most successful emerging market economies, owing to their rapid growth and the striking gains in their populations' living standards. With their generally prudent fiscal policies and high rates of private saving, they were widely seen as models for many other countries. No one could have foreseen that these countries could suddenly become embroiled in one of the worst financial crises of the postwar period.
What went wrong? Were these countries the victims of their own success? This certainly seems to have been part of the answer. Their very success led foreign investors to underestimate their underlying economic weaknesses. Partly because of the large-scale financial inflows that their economic success encouraged, there were also increased demands on policies and institutions, especially those safeguarding the financial sector; and policies and institutions failed to keep pace with these demands (see table). Only as the crisis deepened were the fundamental policy shortcomings and their ramifications fully revealed. Also, past successes may have led policymakers to deny the need for action when problems first appeared.