A good starting point for exploring the local currencies of a region is to look at a financial newspaper, such as the Financial Times. What is the value of the local currencies in respect to the U.S. dollar at the moment? Do you think it was wise for the countries’ governments to let the currencies float freely in 1997? Why did they peg their currencies’ value to the U.S. dollar in the first place? Do you think that the link with the U.S. dollar had any effect on the Asian Crisis? Explain.