>>The IMF bailout of S Korea was designed to dismantle the Korean
Development
>>Model, even at the cost of deepening its financial crisis. The bailout
was
>>directed from the US Treasury by Rubin and Summers, who intended to break
up
>>the Chaebols into Western-style corporations oriented toward short-term
>>profit and vulnerable to takeover by foreign investors. Given its
>>desperation for new loans, S Korea had no choice but to accept the
>>IMF-imposed measures.
>
>No.
>
>Bob and Larry did not sit down in the Treasury's conference room and
>say "how can we destroy the Korean development model?"
The dissolution of the Korean model was the *overt* intention of the bailout
plan. Perhaps "Bob and Larry" believed they were helping S Korea by forcing
it to dismantle its successful development model, but this doesn't change
anything. The result of their actions, had they been successful, would have
meant the destruction of S Korea's economic sovereignty along standard 3rd
World lines.
>
>The IMF bailout of Korea was designed to keep Korea from having a
>depression.
Which bailout are you talking about? After Korea threatened default, Rubin, under pressure from domestic finance capital, instructed the IMF to drop the conditions that would have radically restructured the Korean economy. This was the real bailout, and it was nothing like Rubin's original plan, which had brought the Koreans to the brink of ruin.
Ted