Basic Facts about Wealth and Poverty

Rob Schaap rws at comserver.canberra.edu.au
Sat Jun 6 23:33:16 PDT 1998


Got this in today's *Auystralian* too:

'With the American economy strong in the face of troubles in Asia and Russia, traders sought the dollar as a haven for their funds. US stocks and bonds also rallied. The dollar's gains were interrupted by a large sale of the US currency, which traders at first assumed was a defence of the yen by the Bank of Japan. But when it became clear the Japanese central bank was not intervening, traders resumed their dollar- buying and yen-selling.'

If half the top 500 US companies are declaring declining profits and you have a persistent current account deficit problem that ain't gonna improve under this strong a greenback, and if Japan's Yen is obviously not gonna play a positive part in rejuvenating SE Asia - well, exactly where are these 'strong fundamentals' we're always hearing about?

What am I missing? Or are we just watching idle capital fleeing from fires into frying pans?

Cheers, Rob.



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