In retrospect, it seems to me that the biggest mistake the IMF made in the Asian crisis was insisting that recovery depended on fundamental reform--on dismantling the whole structure of crony capitalism. Not that reform was a bad idea, or cronyism a good thing; but the linkage between financial crisis and reform was wrong both as a diagnosis and as a strategy. What we know now is that reform was not crucial to recovery: In Korea, in particular, a red-hot recovery is underway despite the government's frustrating failure to break up the system of politically influential chaebol (conglomerates). And the attempt to force reform down the throats of reluctant governments as a condition for loans helped feed the collapse of confidence--most notably in Indonesia.