T en years ago, when Asia was in the midst of its home-grown financial crisis, capitalism as practised in that continent was everybody's favourite punchbag. Though it was hard to generalise about economies ranging from Indonesia to Japan and from Singapore to China, many academics formed general principles about where Asia had gone wrong.
Asian economies were said to be too dependent on foreign capital flows and too keen on funnelling state resources through tightly controlled banks instead of relying on more creative and efficient capital markets. Many practised a form of “crony capitalism” in which the interests of the state and favoured businesses, often family- controlled, were too intertwined. Managers were shielded from shareholders instead of being prodded to make efficiencies and align their interests with those of their investors. Governments, in general, took too close an interest in economic decision-making, misallocating capital and hindering the creative forces of the market.
Now the boot is on the other foot, find Asian policymakers, regulators, businessmen and politicians – some of whom had resented the lectures and some of whom had taken them to heart. Not a few are starting to lecture the west about its casino capitalism and its credit-fuelled, asset-bubble growth model.