Currency crises are extremely perplexing problems, initially erupting in a country's financial markets and spreading throughout a country's economy and beyond--often with devastating consequences for real economic activity. Experts on the two most recent crises--in Argentina and Turkey--together with others who have studied currency crises more broadly, examine why such crises continue to erupt and how to mitigate their impact, possibly preventing additional crises in the future. Argentina's Avoidable Crisis: Bad Luck, Bad Economics, Bad Politics, Bad Advice Andrew Powell, Universidad Torcuato di Tella Hard Money's Soft Underbelly: Understanding the Argentine Crisis Ricardo Hausmann, Harvard University Andrés Velasco, Harvard University Banking Sector Fragility and Turkey's 2000-01 Financial Crisis Fatih Özatay, Merkez Bankasi Güven Sak, Merkez Bankasi Panel: Lessons of Recent Currency Crises Morris Goldstein, Institute for International Economics Currency Crises: A Practitioner's View Jose Luis Machinea, Inter-American Development Bank Does East Asia Need a New Development Paradigm? Yung Chul Park, Korea University Currency crises are extremely perplexing problems, initially erupting in a country's financial markets and spreading throughout a country's economy and beyond--often with devastating consequences for real economic activity. Experts on the two most recent crises--in Argentina and Turkey--together with others who have studied currency crises more broadly, examine why such crises continue to erupt and how to mitigate their impact, possibly preventing additional crises in the future. Argentina's Avoidable Crisis: Bad Luck, Bad Economics, Bad Politics, Bad Advice Andrew Powell, Universidad Torcuato di Tella Hard Money's Soft Underbelly: Understanding the Argentine Crisis Ricardo Hausmann, Harvard University Andrés Velasco, Harvard University Banking Sector Fragility and Turkey's 2000-01 Financial Crisis Fatih Özatay, Merkez Bankasi Güven Sak, Merkez Bankas