ge levels of costly debt. To service this costly debt, Southeast Asian companies needed to maintain high levels of demand for their products. When demand faltered in mid-1997, the entire system collapsed upon itself. As a consequence, the entire region experienced a severe loss of liquidity (Marshall, 1998). Southeast Asia began to renew its economic growth in early 1999, and slow growth continues in the region, with the exception of Japan, the most important economy in the region. Japan officially slipped back into recession with two consecutive quarters of negative economic performance in late 1999. Japan did experience growth in late 1998 and early 1999, before slipping once again into economic recession. The outlook did not improve substantially for Japan until 2001 (Feldman, 2000). Economic performance in the European Community has been positive for the past three years, although the birth pangs of the euro have caused some concerns. For the most part, however, th
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