THE monetary crisis that began in Thailand, on July 2, 1997, very quickly spread to neighboring countries, reaching even as far as South Korea. In just one night, the exchange rate of the Thai baht, against the US dollar depressed by 25 percent. Two weeks later, the Indonesian rupiah followed suit and fell furthest. By the beginning of November, when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) entered Indonesia, the rupiah exchange rate had already fal