turning point?

[Chris Burford]

At 10:50 AM 8/22/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Dennis R Redmond wrote:
>
>>They did? Whoa -- the East Asian currency unit may yet be born in front of
>>our very eyes. Anyone have more detailed info on these interventions? I
>>heard that HK spanked speculators via stock repurchases, and I'm sure
>>Singapore is backing Malaysia to the hilt, but what's the deal with
>>Taiwan?
>
>This week's Economist has an article on this
><http://www.economist.com/editorial/justforyou/current/fn7430.html>
>
>Doug
>
>Taiwan's currency
>QUIET TIME
>
>THIS summer there may be no more tedious place in Asia than Taiwan.
>While currency traders in other financial centres are battling turbulent
>markets, their counterparts in Taipei are desperate for a little action.
>That Taiwan's financial markets are unexciting represents a victory of
>sorts for the island's central bank, the Central Bank of China.

Interesting further example of resistance to the neo-liberal laissez faire
agenda. 

The Taiwanese regime, of course honours Sun Yat-sen who was a progressive
reformer, and there is no reason to think they believe in neo-liberalism
for its own sake.


>From what I can see scanning the economic news, Hong Kong did indeed finish
the week successfully. The fall on the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday
looks proportionately smaller than that on a number of others. I saw one
headline that their blue chip index ended the week 14% higher than when the
government moved in to punish the speculators for  their scam. 

So certain types of intervention can be successfully used to withstand the
global tides of financial movements. Certain types of state intervention
can work. There is an alternative.

Chris Burford