Are global financial markets rational or are manias possible? Should crises be allowed to run their course and purge the system? Should a lender of last resort intervene to dampen their impact on the real economy? This text addresses these and other questions. The editors have pulled together a collection of chapters that review the spate of financial crises that have occurred in recent years starting with Mexico in 1994 and moving on to more recent crises in Turkey and Argentina. This authoritative study provides an understanding of this important area with a combination of economic history, political economy and developments in analytical economic theory. INDICE Financial crises and global governance, Meghnad Desai asset price bubbles and monetary policy, Franklin Allen and Douglas Gale the international monetary fund - past and future, Michel Aglietta regulating global finance - rival conceptions of world order, Andrew Gamble crises, recovery and reforms in East Asia, Jomo K.S. Mexico, Korea and Brazil: three paths to financial crises.