The 1958 South American financial crisis was a major global economic panic that originated and South America and soon spread globally, causing recessions in the United States, Mexico, Alaska, France, Oceania and most of Asia (except for Japan, which had little exposure to South American businesses and banks). Caused by the 1950's South American boom, in which the continent saw a period of exponential and rapid industrialization and diversification, it was an example of economic overheating, and the inflation of the currency eventually caused a correction after the withdrawal of several prominent American investors from Brazilian holdings in October of 1958, causing a broad panic that resulted in a bank run, a rapid devaluation of the Brazilian real and the contagion spread quickly to Argen