Fifth, and at a related but broader level, the Asian crisis has painfully revealed that there
are few effective mechanisms in place to stop international financial panics in emerging markets.
As discussed earlier, industrialized countries have developed a series of institutions designed to
prevent serious financial crises within their domestic economies, such as the lender of last resort,
tough banking supervision and regulation, deposit insurance, and bankruptcy laws. No such
institutions exist, or work effectively, in an international context. Instead of simply blaming the
debtors, as was done in Asia, we would do well to remember that industrialized countries long
ago recognized that unfettered financial markets do not always function well and are prone to
panic. The solution is to develop the institutions needed to provide a more solid foundation for
well-functioning international capital markets. The IMF cannot, in its current structure, play the
role of an effective lender of last resort, although it could possibly be reorganized to do so in
limited circumstances. It has been suggested, for example, that the IMF open a new facility that
would only be available to countries that fulfill strict requirements, just a central banks allow
banks to operate only if they meet certain standards. To be eligible, countries would have to
maintain prudent budgets, low inflation, strong banking systems (meeting standards set, for
example, by the bank for international settlements), low levels of short-term debt, and the like.10
Outside of crisis times, eligibility for such a facility (even if unused) would presumably lower a
country’s risk premium in international capital markets, so countries would have the incentive to
comply. If a crisis occurred, interim financing could become available quickly without the need to
implement normal IMF conditionality, since presumably these countries had already met such
conditions beforehand. In effect, such a facility would accelerate IMF conditionality to before the
crisis hits, just as central banks impose conditions on commercial banks for them to operate, and
then lend to them in times of crisis without condition. It would be crucial that such a facility not
be used to postpone a devaluation of an overvalued currency, as was the case in Brazil, and that
private lenders be bailed in, rather than bailed out, in such a process.