Choice Review

Okposin and Yu dissect Malaysia's five major economic crises since independence to reveal their unique characteristics, economic impacts, and associated fiscal and monetary policy responses by the government. After reviewing economic crisis theory, they analyze the commodity crisis from 1956 to 1972, the oil crisis of 1973-74, the commodity and oil crisis of 1980-81, the electronic commodity crisis of 1985-86, and the financial crisis of 1997-98. To try to target general readers and students, the authors cover general macroeconomic (particularly inflation and unemployment) concepts and theory and relate government policy responses to each crisis. Each crisis had unique characteristics that in turn allowed the government to develop skills in managing economic crises and improve policy responses to succeeding ones. Ironically this work contains limited time series data on commodities produced and exported by Malaysia, little coverage of how these commodities augment and stimulate GDP and employment, and a fragmented and incomplete analysis and balance-of-payment picture of Malaysia's commodity exports. Twenty brief appendixes present economic and some balance-of-payment data, but they only provide a partial picture of the changing commodity dimension of Malaysia's economy. This volume will be of most value to individuals with a substantial economics background. Graduate, research, and professional collections. B. F. Hope California State University, Chico