Ties That Bind; Crony capitalism is stunting southeast Asia, says the author of a new book on the region's godfathers.(Joe Studwell's Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-East Asia)

Byline: Joe Studwell (Studwell is the author of "Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and South-East Asia.")

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to have dinner with Bob Zoellick, the wise American who now heads the World Bank. The conversation turned to Southeast Asia, a region Zoellick knows intimately, and about which I had recently agreed to write a book. In the wake of the 1997 financial crisis, Southeast Asia had been overtaken by China and India as the darlings of developmental economists and multinational business, yet I was optimistic. Zoellick listened quietly as I conjured up images of how the crisis could inspire a cathartic ...