> 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?
The chip market seems to be recovering pretty fast, according to the Semiconductor Business News; fabs everywhere are finding their order books going bonkers. Also, Korea is following the Japanese lead on bank reform, i.e. bailing out the system with copious amounts of fresh credit. Business Korea recently ran some articles worrying about this, but the rentier class clearly does not control Korea Inc., industrialists like Chung Yu Jung do. Finally, let's not forget that Korea owed and owes most of its debt to Japan and the EU, not the US -- those superlow Japanese/EU rates and consequent refinancing via the Miyazawa plan are what's really driving the recovery. Give those developmental states credit: Singapore, Taiwan, China and Japan have all given Wall Street the collective finger, and have lived to tell about it. If they're smart enough to throw some cash at their semiperipheries, they may yet give the EU a run for its money.
-- Dennis