Willem van de Velde the Younger, Dutch ships in a calm. Public domain.
In 1997 Asian currencies broke, and the panic moved from country to country.
If money is tight, a crisis in Thailand reaches you if your employer sells there or if credit tightens here.
If you are in the middle, cheaper imports can arrive with a scare about your own bank's foreign loans.
If you have savings, emerging-market funds stop being a side bet when everyone tries to leave at once.
Thailand let the baht float in July 1997 after spending reserves to defend it.
The crisis spread through East Asia, and the International Monetary Fund arranged painful support programs.
What began as a currency peg became a regional run.
Source: International Monetary Fund history of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.