资料题：According to the passage, what is supposed to be the key link to the economic recovery in East Asia（  ）。

In a breath-taking tum of events, Asia's economies have gone from miracle to meltdown in amatter of weeks.Many forecasters who recently predicted GDP growth of 6% in South Korea andsoutheast Asia for 1998 are suddenly projecting zero or even negative growth.In the often short-sighted world of international finance, a new conventional wisdom is quickly forming: that ineptpolicy- making is dragging down Asian economies, and that only the tough austerity medicine of the International Monetary Fund, plus a good stiff recession, will bring the region's economies back to track.In recent years, foreign and domestic investors in East Asia got 8 touch of what U.S.Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has famously termed “irrational exuberance(茂盛、丰富)".Spumed by years of high economic growth in Asia, these investors poured billions of dollars of loans into the region, financing many worthwhile investments but also 8n unsustainable real estate boom.This over investment need not have caused a crisis.A healthy reaction would have involveda gradual cutback in foreign lending, a gradual weakening of Asia's overvalued currencies and gradual shift of investments from over-inflated property sectors back to long term export-oriented projects.Most short-term booms are brought down to earth without extreme crisis, and such an adjustment was the most likely scenario until the summer in 1997.In the event, Asia experienced a financial meltdown.A gradual withdrawal of funds from Thailand suddenly became a stampede.Thailand's government dallied(玩弄)in responding to the overheating long after it had become apparent, and as a result squandered Thailand's foreign exchange reserves in a misguided attempt to defend the overvalued baht(铢,泰国货币单位) .Thestampede came when foreign creditors realized that Thailand had more short-term foreign debtsthan the remaining short-term foreign reserves.A"rational" panic began.Each investor started to dump assets simply to get out of Thailand ahead of other investors.Panic in Thailand soon took a toll on the economies of its neighbors.The chain reaction of nervous withdrawals led to a melt-down that now includes most of East Asia.Confidence has been so drained that Asia's positive "fundamentals"- historically high rates of growth, savings and exports- -are being overlooked.Economies rely an confidence, and what they most need to fear is, indeed, fear itself.