The Asian financial crisis has caused mobile capital to flee the margins for the core - the United States and Europe mainly. That is causing a credit crunch in all the emerging markets, which in turn erodes the earnings of the large Western globe-spanning companies.

In the absence of any clear-minded and immediate strategy by the G7 and the IMF, investor confidence is weakening daily. Unable to wait for salvation from "the international community," countries like Malaysia are opting out and de-globalizing. Russia might be next. The following section addresses the issues raised by this first world capitalist crisis after the end of communism.

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