) In the paper written by William McGurn "What went wrong?", he explained that the people's minds in Asia only understood the word miracle and the banks failed to recognize the risks and credits of the bloom. The banks also failed to realize that they were only being used as policy arms by the government. The only word that stuck in people's minds in Asia was the word miracle. They therefor forgot the fundamentals, which could be easily understood. William McGurn said that the countries that suffered the most in the Asian economic crash were the countries that were heavily engaged in the state planning. 'This in turn lead to all manners of extravagant claims about "Asian Values" and the idea that western concepts such as competition really didn't apply" (William McGurn. What went wrong?) On February 19, 1998 a group of Hoover fellows and invited experts assembled in the Hoover institution to discuss the likely causes for the crisis. The discussion pulled a very large crowd in to the Hoover Stauffer Auditorium to hear what the well-recognized economists, political scientists and historians had to say. The panel came to an agreement that the crisis that started in Asia was due to excessive short-term borrowing, risky investments by banks and flawed government policies that permitted such investments. (See Hoover Institution Newsletter Spring 1998) From the ...
