The self-insurance against financial fragility is part of a more general bent towards precautionary saving in the developing world.

ECONOMIST: Global economic imbalances

For now there seems little alternative to the dollar as a financial lodestar and the main storehouse for the world's precautionary saving.

ECONOMIST: The path ahead

As the big shock to confidence recedes and people become less worried about the economic outlook, precautionary saving may become less intense.

ECONOMIST: The return of thrift

If these imbalances are to be unwound in an orderly way, China will have to build a social welfare system that reduces huge levels of precautionary saving and thus boost domestic demand.

WSJ: We Need Greater Global Governance