Last Shall Be the First: East European Financial Crisis

Abstract

Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Map -- Ch 1 Introduction -- What Went Wrong and How It Was Fixed -- Maastricht Criteria and Euro Adoption -- Parallels to the East Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98 -- Structure of the Book -- Ch 2 Causes and Eruption of the Financial Crisis -- Causes of the Crisis -- Eruption of the Crisis -- Ch 3 Political Economy of Crisis Resolution -- Hungary: Straightforward Crisis Resolution -- Latvia: The Most Complex Stabilization -- Romania: All About Politics -- Lithuania, Estonia, and Bulgaria: Robust Anticrisis Policy without the IMF -- Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia: No Serious Overheating or Crisis -- Fast Financial Adjustment -- Ch 4 The Exchange Rate Dilemma -- The Baltic Exchange Rate Conundrum -- Why Latvia Did Not Have to Devalue Like Argentina -- Multiple Exchange Rate Options Remain -- Ch 5 The Banking Crisis that Never Materialized -- West European Banks Expand in the East -- The Vienna Initiative -- Ch 6 International Cooperation in Crisis -- International Monetary Fund: Financial Savior -- European Union: The Rookie -- European Central Bank: Voldemort -- The United States: Keeping a Low Profile -- World Bank: The Third Fiddle -- A New Pattern of International Financial Crisis Resolution -- Ch 7 Why Eastern Europe Acted So Responsibly -- Strong Center-Right Tendency in Elections -- Causes of Popular Fiscal Restraint -- Ch 8 Eastern Europe and the Fiscal Crisis in the Eurozone -- The Greek Tragedy -- The Greek Rescue Package of May 2, 2010 -- The South European Rescue Package, May 9-10, 2010 -- East European Lessons Dawn on the Eurozone -- Ch 9 Toward European Convergence -- Outcome of the Crisis in Eastern Europe -- EU Convergence or Divergence? -- The Last Shall Be the First.