Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand were at the centre of the storm a decade ago when high debts, low reserves, poor regulation and currency speculation triggered economic "contagion" that spread from Jakarta to Moscow.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) threw lifelines worth 58 billion dollars to Seoul, 43 billion to Jakarta and 17 billion to Bangkok in return for far-reaching reform as the three "Asian tigers" teetered near bankruptcy.
How times have changed.
Now it's the United States and Europe which are leading the plunge with some of the world's most respected investment banks collapsing under the weight of trillions of dollars in bad debts.
"Astonishing events have unfolded over the past few weeks. I mean, who would have thought that the American investment banking system would have basically disappeared? It's amazing," said IMF representative to Indonesia, Milan Zavadjil.
Economists said the turmoil of 2008 was very different to the banking and currency crisis that spread through Asia a decade earlier, but there were also similarities such as mountains of bad debt and weak government oversight.
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