The crisis started in Thailand (well known in Thailand as the Tom Yum Goong crisis; Thai: วิกฤตต้มยำกุ้ง) with the financial collapse of the Thai baht after the Thai government was forced to float the baht due to lack of foreign currency to support its fixed exchange rate, cutting its peg to the U.S. dollar, after exhaustive efforts to support it in the face of a severe financial over-extension that was in part real estate driven. At the time, Thailand had acquired a burden of foreign debt that made the country effectively bankrupt even before the collapse of its currency.[1] As the crisis spread, most of Southeast Asia and Japan saw slumping currencies,[2] devalued stock markets and other asset prices, and a precipitous rise in private debt.