Markets/1998: Thinking positive

Here’s some good news for anyone worried about troubled markets. The last time the world financial system went haywire, it wasn’t so bad. That wasn’t the 2000 tech bust, which stayed mostly in the equity markets. It was the 1998 cascade of troubles. The Asian financial crisis was followed by the Russian debt default, which was followed by the sudden failure of a big hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management. It looked really bad for the financial world. World equity prices fell by 20%. The inve...