Indonesias Crisis In Retrospect

Contributes to a better understanding of the policy, economic, and legal options of countries struggling with debt problems.

The 2008 crash was the worst financial crisis and the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. It triggered a complete overhaul of the global regulatory environment, ushering in a stream of new rules and laws to combat the perceived weakness of the financial system. While the global economy came back from the brink, the continuing effects of the crisis include increasing economic inequality and political polarization. After the Crash is an innovative analysis of the crisis and its ongoing influence on the global regulatory, financial, and political landscape, with timely discussions of the key issues for our economic future. It brings together a range of experts and practitioners, including Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner; former congressman Barney Frank; former treasury secretary Jacob Lew; Paul Tucker, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England; and Steve Cutler, general counsel of JP Morgan Chase during the financial crisis. Each poses crucial questions: What were the origins of the crisis? How effective were international and domestic regulatory responses? Have we addressed the roots of the crisis through reform and regulation? Are our financial systems and the global economy better able to withstand another crash? After the Crash is vital reading as both a retrospective on the last crisis and an analysis of possible sources of the next one.

As the 1998 annual World Bank assessment soberly observed: "No country in recent history, let alone one the size of Indonesia, has ever suffered such a dramatic reversal of fortune." Since the middle of 1997, we have witnessed momentous and tragic events in Indonesia. Nobody foresaw the events, and many ordinary Indonesians have experienced a substantial decline in their living standards. This book describes and analyzes Indonesia s most serious economic crisis against the general backdrop of economic decline in Southeast Asia. It also looks to the future, considering Indonesia's immediate policy challenges to overcome the crisis and dwelling on some of the key longer-term policy challenges raised by the crisis.

Of the developing nations of East Asia, Indonesia came relatively late to liberalizing its trade and investment regime. Only in the mid-1980s, when it was clear that oil revenues alone would not suffice and that a new engine of growth was needed, did the country's government swing behind a systematic deregulation effort. Tariffs were cut, non-tariff barriers were lowered, foreign investment restrictions were reduced, export promotion incentives were enhanced, and various financial sector regulations were eased. All this combined to spark a labor-intensive export-led economic boom that was accompanied by an expansion in wages and employment and a boost in productivity. This book documents how Indonesia truly became part of the East Asian miracle story starting in the mid-1980s. Destined to become a leading case study of export-led development in Indonesia, this book grew out of a World Bank/Indonesian Economic Society Symposium held in Jakarta. There was, however, a parallel story as well, of crony capitalism and weak governance, that led to the financial and political crisis of 1997-98. These aspects were reflected in continued protection of certain sectors where the cronies were active, in restrictions on domestic trade and competition that were left in place for their benefit, and in financial manipulations that were conducted to their advantage. These aspects are noted as well in the book and pulled together in the concluding chapter, which takes the story up through the crisis years to the present.

This book collects selected articles addressing several currently debated issues in the field of international macroeconomics. They focus on the role of the central banks in the debate on how to come to terms with the long-term decline in productivity growth, insufficient aggregate demand, high economic uncertainty and growing inequalities following the global financial crisis. Central banks are of considerable importance in this debate since understanding the sluggishness of the recovery process as well as its implications for the natural interest rate are key to assessing output gaps and the monetary policy stance. The authors argue that a more dynamic domestic and external aggregate demand helps to raise the inflation rate, easing the constraint deriving from the zero lower bound and allowing monetary policy to depart from its current ultra-accommodative position. Beyond macroeconomic factors, the book also discusses a supportive financial environment as a precondition for the rebound of global economic activity, stressing that understanding capital flows is a prerequisite for economic-policy decisions.

Since the first edition, Indonesia has undergone massive political and legal change as part of its post-Soeharto reform process and its dramatic transition to democracy. This work contains 25 new chapters and the 4 surviving chapters have all been revised, where necessary. Indonesia: Law and Society now covers a broad range of legal fields and includes both historical and very up-to-date analyses and views on Indonesian legal issues. It includes work by leading scholars from a wide range of countries. There is still no comparable, English language text in existence.

This book describes and analyses Indonesia's most serious economic crisis, against the general backdrop of economic decline in Southeast Asia. It also looks forward, considering Indonesia's immediate policy challenges to overcome the crisis, and dwelling on some of the longer-term policy challenges raised by the crisis.