We have forgotten - Asian Financial Crisis

I guess most of us only remembered the last Great Financial Crisis, starting with the housing toxic securities which the bubble finally burst in 2008/2009. How many of us still remembered the Asian Financial Crisis and how it started. This site here has documented the entire timeline and events if you are interested. Why am I writing this out of the blue.

In the past weeks, after Trump won the US Presidential Election, the USD has strengthened and the regional currencies weakened. Some Asean countries' currencies (Malaysia, Philippines) have dropped in a terrifying speed. Looking back, in 1997, as we all know by now, the AFC was started from Thailand due to the crashed in it's currency by as much as 20%, and situation were further aggravated by the huge infrastructure spending. 

Last week, we witnessed the Malaysian Ringgit devalued about 33% from a norm range of RM3.3 against the USD, and Philippines Peso devalued about 14% from a norm range of PHP43.6 against the USD. Similarly to 1997, these 2 countries were also spending lots of money on their infrastructure. 

Historical events can be an important learning lessons for all of us(that's if you learned something from it), however it does not mean that the same event will happen again(hopefully). But if it does, we should be more prepared this time to capitalise on it. In a lighter note, it's time for more shopping in our neighbourhood country☺.