Fear is growing in financial markets around the world. First, it was Argentina. Then came Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia Investors and policy-making officials are worried about the falling value of currencies of several emerging markets. Most of these developing countries have borrowed a lot of money, often in United States dollars. As the value of their national currency falls against the dollar, the amount they have to repay grows larger. This has caused fears of a repeat of the 1997 Asian financial crisis or of Mexico’s financial crisis in 1994. Why? One word: contagion. Contagion means that economic concerns move from one country to another, bringing down currency values and stock markets. Contagion could affect every country in the world.