Financial Crises and Economic Crises

Robert Samuelson wrote about the recent downturn in financial markets in several major developing countries in response to the rise in long-term interest rates in the United States. While he notes that this is not likely to lead to a larger crisis given the current circumstances in the developing world, he concludes his piece by telling readers:

"Every major financial crisis of the past 20 years has begun with some relatively minor event whose significance seemed isolated: weakness of the Tha...