Yeah, that's The Economist. I have more recent Korean Economic Research Institute numbers that do show some positive growth for the first quarter, but nothing to justify the wild runup in the stock market. Hey, the South Korean stock market rose more last year than any other in the world. Of course, Russia's rose more than any other in 1997....... Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Seth Ackerman <SAckerman at FAIR.org> To: 'lbo-talk at lists.panix.com' <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Friday, May 14, 1999 1:05 PM Subject: RE: Today's Salon (continued) -- "Abrasive prick"
>The Economist ran a chart a couple weeks ago, showing Korean GDP growth.
>No '99 data yet, but GDP shrank in all 4 quarters of '98, including over
>-5% in Q4. The "recovery" looks virtually all financial to me.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. [SMTP:rosserjb at jmu.edu]
>> Sent: Friday, May 14, 1999 12:36 PM
>> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>> Subject: Re: Today's Salon (continued) -- "Abrasive prick"
>>
>> Doug,
>> The WSJ article is not too far off. There has been
>> probably more restructuring than in some of the other
>> "East Asian crisis economies," but certainly not as
>> much as the IMF wanted. Furthermore, growth has
>> only barely restarted, if at all. There are all these
>> boomy forecasts, but it has not really taken off yet
>> in any substantial way.
>> One irony is that the smallish amount of turnaround
>> that has happened has apparently already worked to
>> slow down the restructuring efforts.
>> A quick summary would be that there has been more
>> restructuring of the banks than there has been of the
>> dominant chaebols. What little there has been of them
>> has been almost entirely just a shell game of shuffling
>> things around.
>> Barkley Rosser
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>> Date: Friday, May 14, 1999 11:21 AM
>> Subject: Re: Today's Salon (continued) -- "Abrasive prick"
>>
>>
>> >Henry C.K. Liu wrote:
>> >
>> >>Doug is respected not because his views are from the left, but that
>> his
>> >>views are often validated by subsequent facts.
>> >
>> >An invalidated. For example, I thought the U.S. and IMF would really
>> >succeed in restructuring Korea to their liking. But a front-pager in
>> >today's Wall Street Journal says, with palpable sadness, that Korea
>> is
>> >recovering without "reform." Anyone know what the truth is?
>> >
>> >Oh yeah, and the WSJ has an op-ed by Rudi Dornbusch saying that while
>> U.S.
>> >stocks may be a tad overpriced, the adjustment should be "turbulent
>> but
>> >ultimately soft" - but Japan could still turn into "the biggest
>> financial
>> >crisis of the postwar period." How reassuring. Funny he should say
>> that
>> >4-5% U.S. inflation is impossible the very morning the CPI showed a
>> >month-to-month inflation rate that annualizes to 4.9%.
>> >
>> >Doug
>> >
>