The Nikkei carry an interesting piece from an interview with Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The ex-PM saw the collapse of the Malaysian ringgit's peg to the U.S. dollar during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.

He is optimistic such an event could not recur:

  • The depth of modern currency markets means a repeat of the 1997 Asian financial crisis is less likely
  • "When there are many people competing in currency trading, then it's a bit difficult to play around with the value," he said in an interview with Nikkei Asia to mark the anniversary of the crisis. "You may want to depress the value but other people want to raise the value, so they cancel each other."

Here is the link for more.

Its not all roses, Mahathir points to Sri Lanka's current woes in the interview.

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King US dollar is weighing on many DM currencies:

king dollar