Abstract
This paper seeks to examine and analyze the causes of the Asian financial crisis and their effects. It evaluates the impact of such factors as currency overvaluation and debt liquidity on the extent of the bubble collapse. It also looks at the exasperation of the crisis by sovereign and IMF intervention and seeks to explain the ramifications of the crisis at a sovereign and domestic firm-based level.

From the Paper
"Currency overvaluation severely affected the Asian nations when combined with the precarious use of debt. The prolific use of foreign currency denominated debt within Asian was only tenable in conjunction with a stable exchange rate. Here, however, despite little rise in real exchange rate, the long run growth rate of Asian countries such as Thailand did not match that of the $US - indicating currency overvaluation. Following the depreciation of the Baht other Asian currencies depreciated due to export competitiveness- an example of contagion . The currency devaluation made it more difficult to make payments in other currencies, thus non-performing loans increased. The foreign currency risk adopted by Asian countries was compounded by liquidity risk."

Tags:debt, exchange, financial, foreign, illiquidity, imf, liberalization

Abstract
A look at Malay political culture from the perspectives of Anthony Milner. The author investigates the Malay political experiences, traditions and customs and analyzes these from the Milner's point of view that political relationships in Malay are based on leadership and support.

From the Paper
"Anthony Milner's central point in his examination of kerajaan is that the key to understanding political motivation must involve an understanding of differing political experience. European observers often saw political relationships in Malay societies as being based on accumulation and distribution of wealth, whereas to Milner the process had a deeper political motivation; to gain supporters."

Tags:politics, tradition, wealth, honor, motivation, leadership, support

Abstract
This paper examines how the history of the Australian family is a history of change in the economic and instrumental organization of family life and in patterns of authority and relationships. It analyzes how family life in Australia has changed over the last two hundred years. Since Australia was formerly a British colony, it also include details about the family life of original inhabitants and social as well as economic changes brought in by free settlers and immigrants.

Outline
What is a Family?
Introduction
Aboriginal Families
Colonial Australia ? Convicts Era and Early Immigrants
Early Twentieth Century - Urbanization and Industrialization
Suburbans and Families ? After World War II
Twentieth Century
Conclusion

From the Paper
"By the 1970s, the prototypical nuclear family had yielded somewhat to modified structures including the one-parent family, stepfamilies and the childless family. One-parent families in the past were usually the result of the death of a spouse. Burns revealed that lone-parent families were rather common in the nineteenth century and continued into the twentieth century (Burns et al 1983, p.60). Now, however, most one-parent families are the result of divorce, although some are created when unmarried mothers bear children. In 1991, more than one out of four children lived with only one parent, usually the mother and most one-parent families, however, eventually became two-parent families through remarriage (Australian Bureau of Census and Statistics, 1991)."

Tags:urbanization, industrialization, immigrants, aborigines

Abstract
This paper explores three major arguments of the roots of insurgency targeting in contemporary South East Asia and further demonstrates the implications of secessionist struggles for national states and the South East Asian region as a whole.

From the Paper
"An insurgency is an organized, armed political struggle whose goal may be the seizure of power through revolutionary takeover and replacement of the existing government (Pye in Eckstein 1980, p. 159). Insurgencies are not sudden events and can be considered as a nation at war. As outlined by Thornton, insurgent activities including guerrilla warfare, terrorism, and political mobilization, are designed to accomplish specific social, economic, and political reforms (in Eckstein 1980, p. 89). In some cases, however, an insurgency's goals may be more limited. For example, the insurgency may intend to break away from government control and this is commonly known as secession."

Tags:struggle, nation

Abstract
This paper shows that Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea have been identified as the five best performing Asian economies, having grown twice as fast as other East Asian economies since the 1960's - 1980's. This essay identifies and discusses a range of reasons for the rapid economic growth rates of the economies of these countries. Arguments are supported by statements by different economists and statistical tables.

From the Paper
"At the end of World War II, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore were war-shattered, largely resource-poor areas with rapidly growing populations and very low living standards. By the 1980s, Japan had become one of the world's richest countries and the others had achieved or were approaching income levels of developed nations (FCJ Editors, 1998). South Korea has jumped from being a developing nation to the status of advanced industrial nation. South Korea and Taiwan have recently made the leap to democracy. Hong Kong, probably the most freewheeling economic region in the world, was incorporated into the People's Republic of China on July 1, 1997. Singapore is an economic leader of all of South East Asia."

Tags:gdp, macroeconomic, recession

Abstract
This paper discusses the several factors responsible for the economic slowdown in South East Asian countries in recent years, including headings like the Asian Crisis and the Second World Economic Crisis. Graphs. There are statistics cited throughout the paper to support and balance the discussion.

From the Paper
"The East Asian economic miraculous growth since the 1980s has came to an abrupt end with the Asian financial crisis from 1997 to 1998 (Cheong, 2001), and it has contributed significantly to the slowdown of Japan and the four Asian Tigers. There are several factors that led to the Asian Crisis in July 1997. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (1999), the difficulties that East Asian countries faced were not primarily the result of macroeconomic imbalances. Rather, these stemmed from weaknesses in their financial systems and governance. Most were having budget surpluses, external surpluses, but low inflation. The maintenance of relatively fixed exchange rates led banks and corporations to borrow large amounts of international capital, much of it short-term, that are denominated in foreign currency, and unhedged. Also, as the contagion spread to Korea, the world's eleventh largest economy, the possibility of a default by Korea raised a potential threat to the international monetary system (IMF, 1999)."

Tags:economy, gdp, growth, hong, imf, international, japan, kong, korea, monetary, rate, singapore, system, unemployment

Abstract
This paper begins with a brief description of the country of South Korea, including area size, population, culture, economy and neighbouring regions. The paper then continues with a discussion of the impact of globalisation on South Korea and the part South Korea plays in the global economy. The writer comments on the overall effects of South Korea's relationship with its northern adversary, North Korea and how this impacts on the globalisation of its economy.

From the Paper
"South Korea is found on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, sharing its only border with North Korea. Other neighbours are Japan, 200 kilometres across Korea Strait, as well as China and Russia only a few hundred kilometres to its north. South Korea's total land area is 98,190 sq km and total population of 48,289,037. Its natural resources include coal, tungsten, graphite, molybdenum, lead, hydropower potential, and Korea makes $172.6 Billion from exports and spends $160.5 Billion on Imports."

Tags:economic, international, north, communism

Abstract
This paper relates that, as this Flying Geese pattern of development progresses, countries in the Asian region become more and more integrated and interdependent. The author states that the Flying Geese model describes how industry passes through five stages: Introduction, import substitution, export, mature and reverse-import stages. The paper concludes that the significance of Flying Geese model in East Asia's economic development is declining in recent time as high technology is introduced and globalization takes place. Tables.

Table of Contents
Introduction
The Meaning of Flying Geese Model
Evidences of Flying Geese Pattern Development in East Asia.
Significance of Flying Geese Hypothesis in East Asia Economic Development.
High Inflows of FDI and Export Expansion
International Economic Development.
Inter-Industry and Intra-Industry Trade Pattern.
Regional Integration
Declining Significance of Flying Geese Model in Recent Time
Conclusion

From the Paper
"When reaching export stage, the growth of domestic demand will decline. Exports of the product have begun to increase and imports decline. The strong exports enable the country to import capital goods for continued expansion of production. Inward FDI becomes significant as the same industry in the advanced countries has lost its comparative advantage and has to relocate to developing countries. As the industry gets into its mature stage, production slows down due to increasing costs and intensified competition from late-starting countries."

Tags:interdependent, substitution, export, technology, globalization

Abstract
This essay examines the content of Pre-Qin Chinese religious thinking, namely the religions of the Shang and Zhou dynasty. It explores the forces, which according to the religious beliefs of the Shang and Zhou people, controlled the human and non-human world. It shows that, according to these beliefs, the two worlds mentioned above co-existed and affected one another. Subsequently, the essay reveals that the ancient Chinese ideas about cosmic order and disorder were very closely related to the political domain.

From the Paper
"However, at the same time, it can be argued that the human world also controlled, or at least affected, the non-human world. The term "non-human" can be defined very broadly. It simply means "anything that is not human". The people of the Shang Dynasty believed that natural happenings such as storms, droughts, comets or eclipses were affected by human conduct. They were seen as warnings sent by the heavens, so that "human beings especially rulers might reform their personal conduct as well as their conduct of government." It is clear that there was a belief that the behavior of the human world would affect the happenings of the non-human world- bad behavior would cause natural disasters."

Tags:ideas, religious, supernatural, Shangdi, Confucius

Abstract
A study into why certain Asia-Pacific countries such as Cambodia fail to reach long-term economic growth and an explanation of the conditions and policies needed in an economic climate to achieve this growth.
The paper covers the following topics:
Preconditions for faster economic growth
Policies for faster economic growth
Asia Pacific LDCs (Least Developed Countries) & Cambodia
The paper is filled with examples and recent statistics of countries including USA, Australia, Taiwan, Europe, Japan, Cambodia, and Asia-Pacific LDCs in general.

From the Paper
"According to McTaggart et al, there are several pre-conditions for economic growth. One of which is the existence of an institutional framework that is crucial to the creation of incentives. This institutional framework included markets (supply and demand), property rights, facilities for monetary exchange, as well as simple and transparent regulatory systems (1999: 32.7). Market prices send signals to buys and sellers that create incentives to increase or decrease the quantities demanded and supplied. Markets also enable people to specialize and trade and to save and invest. Property rights are the social arrangements that govern the ownership, use and disposal of factors of production and goods and services (McTaggart et al, 1999:32.17). They include the rights to physical property, to financial property and to intellectual property. The existence of property rights and their enforcement by the law provide people with certainty in their business dealings and hence they help provide macroeconomic stability and a pre-condition for growth."

Tags:deficit, economy, europe, exchange, export, foreign, free, import, market, policy, price, regulatory, system, taiwan, trade, world