[lbo-talk] Keiretsu Capital

dredmond at efn.org dredmond at efn.org
Mon Jan 12 13:41:52 PST 2004


Quoting Grant Lee <grantlee at iinet.net.au>:


> The ASEAN and north east Asian economies,
> including those cited by you, fall into several broad political-economic
> types. They have very different cultures, histories and economic resources
> and are as disparate from each other as the US is from France, France from
> Sweden, and Sweden from Russia.

These cultures and histories didn't prevent the formation of the EU or a common EU-Russian economic space.


> For example, mainland China and Vietnam are ex-Soviet-style-communist
> societies where egalitarian ideals have gone out the window, although the
> state nominally owns a significant proportion of enterprises. As aspiring
> capitalist economies, both have big "problems" in agriculture, which employs
> the vast majority of the population and is resistant to "reform".

Agrarian reform was what jumpstarted the Chinese and Vietnamese booms: rising output spawned rural industrialization which spawned urbanization which spawned export-platform investment, etc.


> At the other extreme, Hong Kong -- whether or not we consider it to be
> "independent" -- remains a paragon of laissez faire, perhaps the most
> successful entrepot in world history.

Not quite. The British administration ran a huge public housing program, and Hong Kong's business class was largely the creation of expatriate Shanghai capital/ists/ism.


> In Taiwan and South Korea -- both ex-Japanese colonies -- the key to their
> success was the communist menace,

That's just one of the factors involved. Access to US markets, the nearby presence of Japan, the chaebol/Taiwanese business groups, the rise of the computer industry, US military Keynesianism, and much else was involved.

-- DRR



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