1998 Southeast Asia

Networks amplify the smallest of signals into booms and busts.

The first signal was a boom, that began in quiet and exploded.
The next signal was a bust, small, out of the blue, and it grew.

1997, it began in Southeast Asia in May. It rolled like tsunami. Thailand fights off a squeeze of its currency, the Baht. By July, Thailand devalues its currency by 20% and asks for IMF aid. A new signal is just spreading, the boom is over.

Currencies in Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Indonesia are squeezed. Singapore. Indonesia. Hong Kong. South Korea. Companies are closed, billions in market value evaporates.

The market declines continue, the crisis hits real economies.

There are bailout packages but the price in is austerity and closures. Riots, food shortages, and violence follows the drops in currency and markets. The Japanese Yen has to be supported by the US after Japan's first recession in 23 years.

1998, the crisis spreads to Russia and Latin America.

It's not just the "emerging markets", the New York Fed leads a $3.5B USD bailout of Long Term Capital Management, one of the world's largest hedge funds. The worry is letting it fail.

The Fed cuts rates several times. Early in the crisis, investors buy so many 30 year US treasuries, the yield drops below 5%, for the first time in 30 years.

The powers-that-be take from one network, and gives to another.

After the devastation in the emerging markets, the country of the future, the "Internet", begins a feeding frenzy. The future is always has a signal starting somewhere.

TheGlobe, social networking pioneer, is offered at $9, rockets up 600+% on IPO day. Broadcast-dot-com paled in comparison, at only 240+% on its IPO. It's later bought out by Yahoo.

The result is the Nasdaq index's value reaches 200X to earnings 18 months later. The future has spoken, and more listen.

The signal becomes a roaring market.

Then, one day it ends, with a new signal.