Business and Economy Passage I 8240 en It all fell apart so quickly, the East Asian "miracle" was supposed to last for decades and propel the world economy to new levels. Instead, Asia's stock and currency markets have been tumbling for months, culminating in the astonishing collapse of the Hong Kong exchange. Multionals that had counted on Asian customers to buy more to everything from cars to aircraft are wondering what went wrong, Bankers are shocked that Asian governments and big corporate borrowers have few coherent strategies for recovery. From Bangkok to Hong Kong there are tales of the "nouveaux riches" rushing to sell Mercedes Benz sedans, Rolex watcher and Chinese antiques just to make ends meet.